5CC, 


THE  LIFE  OF 
MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

AND  THE 
HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


bv  S.  A.  li  —ers 


MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 
From  a  photograph  taken  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  in  1892 


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f*     JAN  12  1910 

THE  LIFE  OF%o^^C^4 
MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 


AND  THE 
HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

BY,/ 

GEORGINE  MILMINE 

ILLUSTRATED        ^ 


ISTEW  YOEK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1909 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF  TRANSLATION 
INTO  FOREIGN   LANGUAGES,   INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 

COPYRIGHT,  1907,   1908,   BY  THE  S.  S.  MCCLUKE  COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT,  1909,  BY  DOUBLEDAY,   PAGE  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHED,  NOVEMBER,  1909 


NOTE 

The    following   history   was   first   published   in   serial    form 

in  McClure's  Magazine,  1907-1908.     It  has  since  been  revised 

and  new  material  has  been  added. 

G.  M. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PXGB 

I.  Mrs.  Eddy's  American  Ancestors — Mark  Baker,  and 
Life  on  the  Bow  Farm — Schooldays  in  Til- 
ton — Early    Influences — Her   First  Marriage         3 

II.  Mrs.  Glover  as  a  Widow  in  Tilton — Her  Interest 
in  Mesmerism  and  Clairvoyance — The  Disposal 
of  Her   Son — Marriage   to   Daniel   Patterson       26 

III.  Mrs.  Patterson  First  Hears  of  Dr.  Quimby — 
Her  Arrival  in  Portland — Quimby  and  His 
"Science" 42 

IV.  Mrs.  Patterson  Becomes  Quimby's  Patient  and 
Pupil — Her  Defence  of  Quimby  and  His  The- 
ory— Her  Grief  at  His  Death — She  Asks  Mr. 
Dresser  to  Take  up  Quimby's  Work       .        .        56 

V.  The  Quimby  Controversy — Mrs.  Eddy's  Claim  that 
Christian  Science  Was  a  Divine  Revelation  to 
Her — The  Story  of  Her  Fall  on  the  Ice  in 
Lynn  and  Her  Miraculous  Recovery         .         .        71 

VI.  The  Quimby  Controversy  Continued-— Mrs.  Eddy's 
Attempts  to  Discredit  Quimby — Her  Charge 
that  He  Was  Always  a  Mesmerist — Quimby's 

Adherents  Defend  Him 88 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VII.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Patterson  in  Lynn — Their  Sep- 
aration— Mrs.  Patterson  as  a  Professional  Vis- 
itor— She  Teaches  Hiram  Crafts  the  Quimby 
"  Science  " — Mrs.  Patterson  in  Amesbury       .      105 

VIII.  Two  Years  with  the  Wentworths  in  Stoughton — 
Mrs.  Patterson  Instructs  Mrs.  Wentworth 
from  the  Quimby  Manuscripts  and  Prepares 
Her  First  Book  for  the  Press  .        .        .      121 

IX.  Mrs.  Glover  Goes  into  Partnership  with  Richard 
Kennedy — Their  Establishment  in  Lynn — 
Mrs.  Glover's  First  Disciples — Disagreements 
and  Lawsuits      .......      134 

X.  Mrs.  Glover's  Influence  over  Her  Students — 
Quimby  Discredited — Daniel  Harrison  Spof- 
ford — Mrs.  Glover's  Marriage  to  Asa  Gilbert 
Eddy 155 

XL  The  First  Appearance  of  Science  and  Health — 
Christian  Science  as  a  System  of  Metaphysics 
— As  a  Religion — As  a  Curative  Agent     .         .      176 

XIL  Mrs.  Eddy's  Belief  that  She  Suffered  for  the 
Sins  of  Others — Letters  to  Students — The 
Origin  and  Development  of  Malicious  Animal 
Magnetism — A  Revival  of  Witchcraft      .         .      211 

XIII.  The  "  Conspiracy  to  Murder  "  Case — Arrest  of 
Eddy  and  Arens  on  a  Sensational  Charge — 
Hearing  in  Court — Discharge  of  the  De- 
fendants       245 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIV.  Mrs.  Eddy  Addresses  Boston  Audiences — She  is 
Tortured  by  Her  Fear  of  Mesmerism — Or- 
ganisation of  "  The  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist " — Withdrawal  of  Eight  Leading  Mem- 
bers— Mrs.  Eddy's  Retreat  from  Lynn       .      262 

XV.  The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  Organ- 
ised— Death  of  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy — Mrs. 
Eddy's  Belief  that  He  Was  Mentally  As- 
sassinated— Entrance  of  Calvin  A.  Frye     .      281 

XVI.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Boston  Household— A  Daily  War- 
fare Against  Mesmerism — The  P.  M.  Soci- 
ety— An  Action  Against  Arens  for  In- 
fringement of  Copyright       ....     298 

XVII.  Literary  Activities — Mrs.  Eddy  as  an  Editor — 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Wiggin  Becomes  Her  Liter- 
ary Assistant — His  Private  Estimate  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  and  Christian  Science       .        .     312 

XVIII.  The  Material  Prosperity  of  Church  and  College 
— Mrs.  Eddy  Goes  to  Live  in  Commonwealth 
Avenue — Discontent  of  the  Students — A 
Rival  School  of  Mental  Healing— The 
Schism  of  1888 340 

XIX.  Mrs.  Eddy  Rallies  Her  Forces — Growth  of 
Christian  Science  in  the  West — The  Mak- 
ing of  a  Healer — The  Apotheosis  of  Mrs. 
Eddy 361 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTFE  PAGE 

XX.  The  Adoption  of  a  Son — Mrs.  Eddy's  House- 
hold and  the  New  Favourite — A  Crisis  in 
Christian  Science — Mrs.  Eddy  is  Driven 
from  Boston  by  "  M.A.M."  .        .        .        .379 

XXL  The  New  Policy — Mrs.  Eddy  Resigns  from 
Pulpit  and  Journal  and  Closes  Her  College 
— Disorganisation  of  the  Church  and  Asso- 
ciation— Reconstruction  on  a  New  Basis — 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  Absolute  Control  and  Posses- 
sion   391 

XXII.  Life  at  Pleasant  View — Mrs.  Eddy  Produces 
More  Christian  Science  Literature — Fos- 
ter Eddy  Is  Made  Publisher  of  the  Text- 
Book — The  Story  of  His  Fall  from  Favour 
— Rule   of   Service 411 

XXIII.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury  and  the  Romantic 
School — Birth  of  the  Prince  of  Peace — Mrs. 
Eddy  Withdraws  Her  Support — "  War  in 
Heaven" 428 

XXIV.  Mrs.  Eddy  Adopts  the  Title  of  "  Mother  "— 
Beginning  of  the  Concord  Pilgrimages — 
Mrs.  Eddy  Hints  at  Her  Political  Influence 
—The  Building  of  the  Mother  Church  Ex- 
tension    ........      441 

XXV.  George  Washington  Glover — Mrs.  Eddy's  Son 
Brings  an  Action  Against  Leading  Christian 
Scientists — Withdrawal  of  the  Suit — Mrs. 
Eddy  Moves  from  Concord,  N.  H.,  to  New- 
ton, Mass 453 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  PAGD 

XXVI.  Training  the  Vine — How  Mrs.  Eddy  Has  Organ- 
ised Her  Church — Her  Management  and 
DiscipHne — The  Church  Manual — Recent 
Modifications  in  Christian  Science  Practice 
— Membership  of  the  Church — Practical 
Results  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Life-Work       .        .     460 

Appendix  A 486 

Appendix  B  ...        .       ..        .....     489 

Appendix  C         .        ..       ,.;       .        ..       :.       ..        .        .     494 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.     From  a  photograph  taken  in 

Concord,  N.  H.,  in  1892     ....       Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Mark  Baker,  Mrs.  Eddy's  father 10 

Daniel  Patterson,  Mrs.  Eddy's  second  husband        .        .        34 
The  house  in  North  Groton,  N.  H.,  where  Mrs.  Eddy, 

then  Mrs.  Daniel  Patterson,  lived  for  seven  years      .        38 

Phineas   Parkhurst   Quimby 48 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.      From  a  tintype  given  to  Mrs. 

Sarah  G.   Crosby  in   1864 62 

Facsimile  of  the  second  sheet  of  the  first  "  spirit  "  letter 
from  Albert  Baker,  Mrs.  Eddy's  brother,  to  Mrs. 

Sarah    Crosby       . 66 

Mary  Baker  G.   Eddy.       From  a   photograph  taken   in 

Amesbury,    Mass.,    in    1870 114 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.      Helping  an  Amesbury  photogra- 
pher to  get  a  successful  picture  of  a  baby        .         .114 
Title  page  and  part  of  the  first  page  of  the  manuscript 
from  which   Mrs.   Glover   taught   Mrs.   Wentworth 
the  system  of  mental  healing  which  she  ascribed  to 

P.    P.    Quimby 128 

Richard  Kennedy.      From  a  photograph  taken  in  Lynn, 

Mass.,   in    1871 1^2 

Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  third  husband   .        .        .168 

Daniel  H.  SpofFord 252 

Edward   J.   Arens 252 

xiii 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Marj  Baker  G.  Eddy.      From  a  tintype  given  to  Lucy 

Wentworth  in  Stoughton,  Mass.,  in  1870  .  .  270 
Mary  Baker  G.   Eddy.      From  a  photograph   taken  in 

Boston  in  the  early  eighties  .....  270 
Calvin  A.  Frye.  From  a  photograph  taken  about  1882  294< 
Mary   Baker   G.    Eddy.       Taken    about   the   year   1886, 

while  at  the  head  of  her  college  in  Boston  .  .  308 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy.      As  she  looked  in  1870  when  she 

first  taught  Christian  Science  in  Lynn,  Mass.  .      308 

The  Reverend  James  Henry  Wiggin,  who  was  for  four 

years  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  adviser  .  .  .  328 
Christian  Scientists'  Picnic  at  Point  of  Pines,  July  16, 

1885 348 

Ebenezer  J.  Foster  Eddy,  the  adopted  son  of  Mrs.  Eddy  384 
George  Washington  Glover,  Mrs.  Eddj^'s  only  child  .  .  384 
Pleasant  View,  Mrs.  Eddy's  home  in  Concord,  N.  H.  .  414 
The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston.      The 

Mother  Church 450 


-^ 


THE  LIFE  OF 
MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

AND  THE 
HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 
THE  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

CHAPTER  I 

MRS.   eddy's  AMERICAN  ANCESTORS MARK  BAKER,   AND   LIFE  ON 

THE    BOW    FARM SCHOOLDAYS    IN    TILTON EARLY    INFLU- 
ENCES  HER    FIRST    MARRIAGE 


MARY  A.  MORSE  BAKER/  the  future  leader  of  the 
Christian  Science  Church,  was  the  sixth  and  youngest 
child  of  Mark  and  Abigail  Baker.  She  was  bom  July  16,  1821, 
at  the  Baker  homestead  in  the  township  of  Bow,  near  the  present 
city  of  Concord  in  New  Hampshire.  As  a  family  the  Bakers  were 
of  the  rugged  farmer  type  of  the  period  to  which  they  belonged. 
From  the  days  of  John  Baker,  their  earliest  American  ancestor, 
who  came  from  East  Anglia  and  obtained  a  freehold  in  Charles- 
town,  Mass.,  in  1634,  throughout  five  generations  ^  to  Mark 
Baker,  they  had  worked  the  unwilling  soil  of  their  New  England 
farms,  and  brought  up  large  families  to  labour  after  them. 
One  of  their  number  had  engaged  in  the  pre-Revolutionary 
wars,  and  in  1758  received  a  captain's  commission  from 
Governor  Benning  Wcntworth  of  New  Hampshire.     This  was 

>Mrs.   Eddv  was  named  iu  part  for  her  grandmother,  Ma^.  ^°".,^J?°;;i  L% 
O'Moor)    Baker.      She   wrote   her   name   as  above,   using  only   the  initial  oi   uir 

'''The°fivT-generations  were  (1)  John.  (2)  Thomas  (3)  Thomas  (4)  Joseph. 
(5)  Joseph,  who  was  the  father  of  Mark  Baker  and  the  grandfathci  of  Mis. 
Eddy. 


4  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Joseph  Baker,  the  grandfather  of  Mark  who  married  Hannah, 
the  daughter  of  Captain  John  Lovewell,  hero  of  "  Lovell's 
Fight,"  and  through  her  came  into  possession  of  the  homestead 
in  Bow.  According  to  family  tradition  this  farm,  which  was 
given  to  Hannah  Lovewell  by  her  father,  was  originally  a  part 
of  "  Lovell's  Grant,"  a  tract  deeded  to  Captain  Lovewell  by 
the  government  for  "  gallant  military  service." 

As  far  back  as  the  memory  of  any  of  the  present  generation 
of  Bakers  goes,  however,  the  farm  was  first  occupied  by  Joseph 
Baker  2d,  and  his  wife,  whose  name  is  recorded  by  the  Baker 
family  both  as  Mary  Ann  O'Moor  and  Marion  Moore.^  Of 
their  large  family  of  children,  Mark,  born  May  2,  1785,  was 
the  youngest,*  and  at  the  death  of  his  father  in  1816,  he,  with 
an  elder  brother,  James,  inherited  the  farm.^  Marfe^^^^re 
of  the  estate  included  the  farmhouse  and  bams,  with  the  obliga- 
tion to  support  his  mother.  The  farm  was  hill  land,  rising 
from  the  valley  of  the  Merrimac  River,  and  not  especially 
fertile,  but  as  his  fathers  before  him  had  done,  he  managed, 
by  toiling  early  and  late,  to  wring  from  it  a  living  for  himself 
and  his  large  family.  In  May,  1807,  he  had  married  the 
daughter  of  Nathaniel  and  Phebe  Ambrose,  neighbours  across 
the  Merrimac,  in  Pembroke,  and  brought  her  home  to  his 
father's  house.  Like  the  Bakers,  the  Ambrose  family  were 
severe  Congregationalists,  and  farmers  of  the  familiar  New 
England   type.     Deacon   Ambrose   and  his   wife   were   staunch 

'  Mrs.  EfWy  and  at  loast  ono  othor  descondant  gives  the  name  as  ^farion 
Monro,  but  from  statistics  copied  from  the  family  Bible  of  tills  Joseph  Baker, 
and  now  in  possession  of  his  jrreat  srand-dauRhter.  it  Is  recorded  that  Joseph 
Baker  was  born  November  0.  1741.  and  died  in  February.  ISlfi.  It  gives  the 
name  of  his  wife  as  Mary  Ann  O'Moir,  who  was  born  December  11,  1743, 
and  died  January  26,  1835,  and  names  ten  children  born  to  them.  See 
Appendix   A. 

■*  The  Joseph  Baker  record  names  ten  children,  as  follows :  John,  James, 
David,   Jesse,   William,   Hannah,   Joseph,  Mary  Ann,   Philip,   and  Mark. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  6 

supporters  of  their  church,  and  they  had  brought  up  their 
daughter,  Abigail,  to  be  both  pious  and  thrifty.  As  the  wife 
of  Mark  Baker  she  is  remembered  for  her  patience  and  industry. 
She  devoted  all  her  energies  to  the  care  of  her  family,  and  was 
faithful  in  attendance  at  church.  And  this  simple  record,  like 
that  of  many  another  heroic  New  England  housewife,  is  all 
that  is  known,  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  mother. 

The  dominating  influence  in  the  Baker  home  was  Mark,  and 
he  made  his  presence  felt  in  the  community  as  well.  His  char- 
acter was  naturally  strong,  and  as  narrow  as  his  experience 
and  opportunity  had  been.  Born  ten  years  after  the  American 
Revolution,  he  grew  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  sharply-defined 
opinions  and  declared  principles,  peculiar  to  the  times.  The 
country  was  still  comparatively  undeveloped  and  scantily  popu- 
lated, and  without  the  broadening  influences  made  possible  by 
later  inventions.  His  house,  in  the  middle  of  an  isolated  farm, 
was  remote  from  its  neighbours ;  the  nearest  town  was  Concord, 
then  a  place  of  two  or  three  thousand  inhabitants,  and  where, 
except  on  market  days  and  church  days,  he  almost  never  went. 
The  hard  daily  labour  of  the  farm,  and  the  equally  hard  work 
which  he  made  of  his  politics  and  religion,  comprised  all  his 
interests.  To  conquer  the  resisting  land,  to  drive  a  good  bar- 
gain, to  order  his  conduct  within  the  letter  of  his  church  law, 
to  hate  his  enemies  and  to  hold  in  contempt  all  who  disagreed 
with  him — these  were  the  rules  by  which  he  shaped  his  life. 
High-tempered,  dominating,  and  narrow,  he  was  not  content 
merely  to  adhere  to  his  own  principles,  letting  other  men  live 
as  they  would,  but  sought  to  impress  his  convictions  upon  his 
neighbours.     There  are  instances  of  life-long  quarrels  between 


6  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mark  Baker  and  those  who  differed  from  him  in  business,  poli- 
tics, and  rehgion.  A  quarrel  over  a  question  of  business  with 
his  brother  James  resulted  in  a  complete  separation  of  the 
two  families  (although  they  lived  as  neighbours  for  years) 
from  1816  almost  to  the  present  time.^  A  charge  which  he 
brought  against  a  church  brother  was  arbitrated  for  several 
years  before  church  committees ;  and  his  local  political  quarrels 
during  abolition  days  were  frequent  and  bitter.  He  lived  on 
the  Bow  farm  from  1785  to  1836,  and  in  Sanbornton  Bridge 
(now  Tilton)  from  1836  until  his  death  in  1865,  and  to  those 
who  knew  him  in  these  two  communities  he  is  still  a  vivid  memory. 
In  appearance  he  was  tall  and  lean,  his  muscles  hardened  by 
labour.  His  iron  jaw  and  tense  gray  eye  bespoke  determina- 
tion and  resistance.  The  very  tap  of  his  stick,  as  he  tramped 
along  the  country  roads,  conveyed  a  challenge.  His  voice 
was  terrific  in  power  and  volume.  The  Baker  voice  is  a  tradi- 
tion in  New  Hampshire,  and  stories  are  told  in  Bow  of  the 
Baker  brothers  at  work  in  distant  fields  upon  their  farms, 
thundering  like  gods  to  each  other  across  the  hills. 

Mark's  neighbours  called  him  "  Squire "  Baker,  and  the 
younger  folk  called  him  "  Uncle."  They  found  him  sharp  at 
a  bargain,  but  honest  in  his  dealings,  and  while  he  paid  his 
workers  the  smallest  wages,  he  always  sacredly  kept  his  word, 
and  in  his  narrow  way  he  was  a  good  citizen.  He  tried  his 
friends  by  his  fierce  temper  and  his  intense  prejudices,  which 
kept  him,  in  one  way  and  another,  in  a  continual  ferment.     "  A 


°  Only  a  fpw  years  ago  Mvs.  Eddy  renewed  this  family  connection  by 
Ki'iiding  for  Roprcsentativo  Henry  Moore  Baker  of  Concord,  a  grandson  of 
.Tamos  Baker,  to  call  upon  her  at  Pleasant  View,  her  home  in  the  same  city. 
Mr.  Baker  was.  until  October,  1909,  one  of  the  three  trustees  appointed  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  1907  to  take  charge  of  her  property  interests. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  7 

tiger  for  temper,  and  always  in  a  row."  "  You  could  no  more 
move  him  than  you  can  move  old  Kearsarge  "  (a  local  moun- 
tain). "An  ugly  disposition,  but  faithful  to  his  church,  and 
immovable  in  his  politics."  These  are  the  comments  of  his 
old  neighbours  in  Tilton  to-day. 

Inevitably,  he  carried  his  religion  and  politics  to  extremes. 
In  the  Congregational  church  he  was  an  active  figure,  faithful 
and  punctilious  in  performing  all  its  requirements.  Not  only 
did  he  fulfil  his  own  church  obligations,  but  he  saw  that  his 
brethren  and  sisters  fulfilled  theirs.  He  brought  charges  of 
backsliding  against  fellow-members  when  they  failed  to  attend 
public  worship  or  communion,  and  was  willingly  appointed  to 
visit  and  "  labour "  with  the  delinquents.  It  seems  probable 
that  Mark  enjoyed  this  duty  and  performed  it  thoroughly. 
He  had  his  own  church  troubles,  too.  The  yellowed  books  of 
the  Tilton  Congregational  Church  record  many  a  disputation 
between  him  and  the  brethren.  A  quarrel  between  Mark  Baker 
and  William  Hayes  was  aired  before  the  congregation  year 
after  year,  but  the  two  were  never  reconciled.  The  church 
did  not  follow  Mark's  wishes  in  the  settlement  of  the  differences, 
and  after  bringing  up  the  old  charges  again  and  again,  and 
receiving  no  satisfaction,  he  applied  for  a  letter  of  dismissal, 
because  he  "  could  not  walk  in  covenant  with  this  church." 
When  his  request  was  refused,  he  placed  himself  on  record  as 
"  feeling  aggrieved  at  the  doings  of  the  church  on  this  subject," 

A  story  which  has  passed  into  neighbourhood  tradition  illu- 
minates the  man  and  shows  the  strength  and  quality  of  his 
religious  feeling.  One  Sunday  in  his  later  years  he  mistook 
the  day  and  worked  as  usual  about  his  place.     On  Monday 


8  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

morning  he  started  for  church,  but  was  disturbed  at  seeing 
his  neighbours  at  work.  As  usual  he  took  them  to  task.  "  Sis- 
ter Lang,"  he  said,  frowning  at  a  neighbour  who  was  placing 
out  her  tubs  for  washing,  "  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  on  the 
Lord's  Day.?  "  The  woman  replied  that  as  the  day  was  Monday 
she  was  preparing  to  do  the  family  washing,  but  jVIark  com- 
manded her  to  prepare  for  church  instead,  and  went  on  his  way. 
Farther  along  he  stopped  again.  "  Brother  Davis,"  he  cried, 
"  what  is  this  commotion  in  the  streets  ?  Why  are  not  the 
church  bells  ringing  for  public  worship  ? "  He  was  again 
assured  that  it  was  Monday ;  but  he  was  not  convinced  until 
he  arrived  at  the  church  and  found  the  doors  closed.  He 
hurried  to  Elder  Curtice,  who  confirmed  his  fears.  "  Is  it 
possible  that  I  have  broken  the  Lord's  Day?  "  exclaimed  Uncle 
Baker  in  alarm,  and  he  knelt  with  his  pastor  and  prayed  for 
forgiveness.  Back  to  his  home  went  the  old  man,  the  godly 
part  of  him  purged.  But  the  old  Adam  remained,  and  as  he 
strode  up  the  hill  he  trembled  with  excitement.  A  tame  crow, 
a  pet  of  the  children  of  the  neighbourhood,  hopped  on  a  bush 
in  front  of  him,  cawing  loudly.  In  his  perturbed  condition, 
the  sight  of  the  bird  made  Mark  angrier  than  ever,  and  raising 
his  stick,  he  struck  the  crow  dead.  "  Take  that,"  he  said  in 
a  passion,  "  for  hoppin'  about  on  the  Sabbath,"  and  he  stormed 
on  up  the  hill.  At  home  he  kept  the  day  strictly  as  Sunday  to 
atone  for  his  worldliness  of  the  previous  day. 

In  politics  he  was  no  less  intense.  He  was  a  pro-slavery 
advocate  before  the  war,  and  an  unbending  Copperhead  during 
it.  He  hated  Abraham  Lincoln  above  all  men.  Two  luckless 
young   women,    selling   pictures   of  Lincoln,   once   entered   his 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  9 

house  to  induce  him  to  buy,  but  saved  themselves  from  ejection 
only  by  a  hasty  flight.  "  I'll  never  forget  what  he  said  about 
Lincoln,"  said  one  of  his  old  neighbours  now  living.  *'  When 
the  news  of  Lincoln's  assassination  reached  Sanbornton  Bridge, 
I  stopped  at  Mark  Baker's  to  tell  him  of  it.  '  What ! '  he  cried, 
and  throwing  down  his  hoe,  he  shouted  at  the  top  of  his  voice, 
'  I'm  glad  on't ! '  " 

When  his  politics  and  religion  clashed  as  they  did  during  the 
Civil  War,  the  old  man  was  sorely  torn.  His  pastor,  Elder  Cor- 
ban  Curtice,  was  a  Republican  who  believed  in  the  righteousness 
of  the  war,  and  Mark,  with  others  of  a  different  political  faith, 
attempted  to  have  the  minister  removed  for  "  political  preach- 
ing." Failing  in  this,  some  of  the  oldest  members  left  the 
church.  But  Mark  Baker  remained.  He  went  to  church  as 
regularly  as  ever,  and  abided  by  all  its  rulings  as  before,  but 
his  protest  was  expressed  in  a  manner  altogether  characteristic. 
He  sat  doggedly  thr.ough  the  sermon,  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
elder.  The  moment  the  word  "  rebellion  "  left  the  preacher's 
lips — whether  he  referred  to  the  rebellion  of  the  States  or 
the  rebellion  of  the  angels — jNIark  Baker  sprang  to  his  feet, 
and,  with  flashing  eyes  and  clenched  fists,  strode  indignantly 
out  of  the  church. 

These  incidents  show  the  calibre  of  the  man  who  was  Mrs. 
Eddy's  father.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  possessed  qualities 
out  of  the  ordinary.  With  his  natural  force  and  strong  con- 
victions, and  with  his  rectitude  of  character,  he  might  have 
been  more  than  a  local  figure,  but  for  the  insurmountable 
obstacles  of  a  childishly  passionate  temper  and  a  deep  per- 
versity   of   mind.      He   was    without   imagination   and   without 


10  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

sympathy.  From  fighting  for  a  principle  he  invariably  passed 
to  fighting  for  his  own  way,  and  he  was  unable  to  see  that  the 
one  cause  was  not  as  righteous  as  the  other.  His  portrait — 
a  daguerreotype — shows  hardness  and  endurance  and  immova- 
bihty.  There  is  no  humility  in  the  heavy  lip  and  square-set 
mouth,  no  aspiration  in  the  shrev/d  eyes ;  the  high  forehead 
is  merely  forbidding.^  ^'^ 

All  Mark  Baker's  children  were  born  in  the  little  farmhouse 
in  Bow,  between  1808  and  1821.  There  were  three  sons — 
Samuel,  Albert,  and  George  Sullivan — and  three  daughters — 
Abigail,  Martha,  and  Mary.®  The  family  also  included  INIark 
Baker's  mother.  According  to  pioneer  custom  the  early  Bakers 
had  built  their  house  on  top  of  the  hill  upon  which  their  farm 
lay,  fully  half  a  mile  from  the  public  road,  which  at  that  point 
follows  the  course  of  the  Merrimac  River  in  the  valley.  However 
inconvenient  and  impractical  this  choice  of  a  site  may  have  been, 
it  left  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the  view.  Across  the  green 
valley  of  woods  and  fields,  through  which  flows  the  white-banked 
river,  one  can  see  from  the  Baker  hill-top  the  long  blue  ranges 
of  the  White  Mountains.  Nearer  at  hand  there  are  glimpses 
of  clean  white  villages,  and  at  the  left  is  the  city  of  Concord. 
The  nearest  house  is  out  of  sight  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  In 
Mark  Baker's  day  it  was  occupied  by  his  brother  James,  with 
whom  Mark  was  not  in  friendly  relation. 

The  house  itself  is  of  wood,  unpainted,  and  extremely  small 

">-*  In  his  last  years  he  was  afflicted  with  a  palsy  of  the  head  and  hands,  and 
Buffer(>d  from  facial  cancer  althouj?h  it  did  not  cause  his  death.  Of  his  family, 
nearly  all  liave  died  of  cancer  in  some  form.  His  two  eldest  daushters  and 
their  three  children,  and  two  of  his  sons,  Samuel  and  George,  all  died  of  the 
dread  disease. 

°  Samuel  Dow,  horn  July  8,  1808 ;  Albert,  horn  February  5.  1810 ;  George 
Sullivan,  born  August  7,  1812;  Abigail  Barnard,  horn  .January  15,  1816; 
Martha  Smith,  born  January  19,  181!) ;  Mary  A.  Morse,  born  July  16,  1821. 


Frcin  a  tintype.     Courtesy  of  Mrs.  II.  S.  Tliilbrook 


MARK   BAKER 
Mrs.  Eddy's  father 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  11 

and  plain.  A  narrow  door  in  the  centre  opens  directly  upon 
the  stairway.  On  the  left  hand  is  a  little  parlour,  lighted  by 
two  small-paned  windows,  and  containing  a  comer  fireplace.  A 
larger  room  at  the  right,  used  as  a  granary  by  the  present 
owner,  was  once  the  kitchen  and  living-room.  Overhead  there 
were  three  or  four  small  sleeping-rooms.  One  wonders  where 
the  family  of  nine  bestow^ed  themselves  wlien  they  were  all  in 
the  house  at  once.  The  house  has  not  been  occupied  for  many 
years.  The  windows  are  boarded  up,  and  it  is  desolate  and 
forsaken.  Yet  it  is  not  forgotten,  for  every  summer  Christian 
Scientists  come  to  visit  the  spot  where  their  leader  was  born. 
It  is  a  shrine  to  the  devout,  who  carry  away  stones  and  handfuls 
of  soil  and  little  shrubs,  as  souvenirs. 

The  Baker  children  were  brought  up  like  other  farmers'  fami- 
lies of  that  time  and  place.  The  older  ones  worked  about  the 
farm  and  in  the  house,  and  in  the  winter  when  farm  v/ork  was 
"  slack  "  they  attended  the  district  school.  Lonely  and  unstimu- 
lating  enough  the  life  seems  from  this  distance,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  was  useful  and  not  uninteresting.  It  was  before  the 
days  of  steam  railroads  and  the  thousand  modern  aids  to  living, 
when  every  farmer's  family  was  an  industrial  community  in 
itself.  All  the  supplies  of  the  household,  as  well  as  food  and 
clothes,  were  produced  at  home.  Each  man  and  woman  and  girl 
and  boy  of  the  farms  w^as  a  craftsman,  their  daily  work  re- 
quiring physical  strength  and  mental  ingenuity  and  a  kind  of 
moral  heroism.  The  school  supplied  their  intellectual  interests, 
the  church  satisfied  their  religious  emotions,  and  for  social 
diversion  there  were  corn-huskings  and  barn-raisings  and  quilt- 
ing-bees.     The  rest  was  hard  labour. 


12  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  qualities  of  Mark  Baker  were  transmitted  to  his  children. 
Thej  were  all  high-tempered  and  headstrong  and  self-assertive, 
and  thej  did  not  lack  confidence  in  themselves  in  any  particular. 
At  home,  however,  they  were  trained  to  obedience  and  up  to 
the  time  at  least  of  the  birth  of  his  youngest  daughter,  Mark 
Baker  was  master  in  his  own  house.  But  from  the  beginning 
it  was  evident  that  special  concessions  must  be  made  to  Mary. 
She  was  named  for  her  grandmother,  who  made  a  pet  of  her 
from  the  first,  and  no  doubt  helped  to  spoil  her  as  a  baby. 
Mrs.  Baker,  the  mother,  often  told  her  friends  that  Mary, 
of  all  her  children,  was  the  most  difficult  to  care  for,  and  they 
were  all  at  their  wits'  ends  to  know  how  to  keep  her  quiet  and 
amused.  As  Mary  grew  older  she  was  sent  to  district  school 
with  her  sisters,  but  only  for  a  few  days  at  a  time,  for  she  was 
subject  from  infancy  to  convulsive  attacks  of  a  hysterical  nature. 
Because  of  this  affliction  she  was  at  last  allowed  to  omit  school 
altogether  and  to  throw  off  all  restraint  at  home.  The  family 
rules  were  relaxed  where  she  was  concerned,  and  the  chief  prob- 
lem in  the  Baker  house  was  how  to  pacify  Mary  and  avoid  her 
nervous  "  fits."  Even  Mark  Baker,  heretofore  invincible,  was 
obliged  to  give  way  before  the  dominance  of  his  infant  daughter. 
His  time-honoured  obsei-vance  of  the  Sabbath,  which  was  a  fixed 
institution  at  the  Baker  farm,  was  abandoned  because  Mary 
could  not,  after  a  long  morning  in  church,  sit  still  all  day  in 
tlic  house  with  folded  hands,  listening  to  tho  reading  of  the 
Bible.  Sundays  became  a  day  of  torture  not  only  to  tlie  hys- 
terical child,  but  to  all  the  family,  for  she  invariably  had  one 
of  her  bad  attacks,  and  the  day  ended  in  excitement  and  anxiety. 
These  evidences  of  an  abnormal  condition  of  the  nerves  are  im- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  13 

portant  to  any  study  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  career.  As  child 
and  woman  she  suffered  from  this  condition,  and  its  existence 
explains  some  phases  of  her  nature  and  certain  of  her  acts, 
which  otherwise  might  be  difficult  to  understand  and  impossible 
to  estimate. 

Until  Mary's  fifteenth  year  the  routine  of  life  at  the  farm 
was  unbroken  except  for  the  departure  from  home  of  her  two 
eldest  brothers  to  start  life  for  themselves,  and  the  death  of 
her  grandmother  Baker.  In  choosing  their  occupations,  Mark 
Baker's  sons  turned  away  from  the  farm,  new  opportunities 
having  been  opened  by  the  expanding  industrial  and  commercial 
life  of  the  country.  Samuel,  the  eldest,  went  to  Boston,  in 
company  with  a  neighbour's  son,  George  Washington  Glover, 
to  learn  the  trade  of  a  stone  mason,  as  the  quarries  of  New 
Hampshire  had  then  been  recently  opened.  Albert,  the  second 
son,  had  a  higher  ambition.  He  prepared  himself  for  college 
and  entered  Dartmouth.  He  was  graduated  in  1834,  and 
immediately  went  to  Hillsborough  Center,  N.  H.,  to  study  law 
in  the  office  of  Franklin  Pierce,  afterward  President  of  the 
United  States.  Under  the  influence  of  Pierce  young  Baker 
entered  politics.  He  served  one  term  as  Assemblyman  in  the 
State  Legislature,  and  received  the  nomination  for  Representa- 
tive in  Congress ;  but  he  died  in  1841  before  the  election.  He 
was  then  only  thirty-one  years  old,  and  his  character  and 
ability  seemed  to  justify  the  high  opinion  of  his  friends,  who 
regarded  him  as  a  coming  man. 

The  death  of  the  elder  Mrs.  Baker  occurred  in  January,  1835, 
and  early  the  following  year  Mark  Baker  sold  the  homestead 
and  moved  his  family  to  a  farm  near  the  village  of  Sanbornton 


14  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Bridge  (now  called  Tilton),  eighteen  miles  north  of  Concord. 
Sanbornton  Bridge  was,  in  1836,  growing  into  a  lively  manu- 
facturing village.  It  already  contained  public-spirited  citizens, 
and  had  considerable  social  life.  Altogether  it  afforded  larger 
opportunities  than  the  Bow  farm ;  and  here  the  interests  of  the 
Baker  family  now  centred.  Abigail,  the  eldest  daughter,  soon 
married  Alexander  Hamilton  Tilton,'^  the  rich  man  of  the 
village,  and  settled  there.  Her  husband  owned  the  woollen 
mill,  and  accumulated  a  considerable  fortune  from  the  manu- 
facture of  the  "  Tilton  tweed,"  which  he  put  on  the  market. 
Mrs.  TLlton  was  extremely  handsome  and  dignified,  and  her 
strong  character,  in  which  the  Baker  traits  were  tempered 
by  a  kindliness  of  spirit  and  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility, 
made  her  a  leading  figure  in  that  little  community.  She  was 
also  capable  and  adaptable.  When  her  husband  died  she  took 
charge  of  his  business,  and  was  even  more  successful  in  its 
management  than  he  had  been.  George  Sullivan  Baker  formed 
a  partnership  with  his  brother-in-law.  Martha,  the  second 
daughter,  married  Luther  C.  Pillsbury,  deputy  warden  of  the 
New  Hampshire  penitentiary  in  Concord,  but  after  the  death 
of  her  husband  she  returned  to  live  in  Sanbornton  Bridge. 
Here,  too,  Mark  Baker  and  his  wife  lived  out  their  days,  and 
jhere  Mary  Baker  passed  her  girlhood,  married,  returned  as  a 
'widow,  married  again,  and  once  more  returned  as  a  deserted  wife. 
As  soon  as  they  were  settled  on  the  new  farm,  Mary  was 
sent  to  the  district  school  at  the  Bridge.  The  schoolhouse 
stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Tilton  Seminary.     It  was   a 


'  At  the  request  of  Charles  Tilton,  wbo  gave  the  village  a  town  hall,  San- 
bornton Bridge  was  renamed  Tilton  in  1869.  Charles  Tilton  was  a  nephew  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  Tilton. 


HISTORY  OP  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  15 

two-story  wooden  building,  painted  red.  The  district  school 
occupied  the  lower  floor,  while  the  upper  room  was  used  for 
a  small  private  school,  where  the  higher  English  branches  were 
taught.  After  a  time  these  upper  classes  came  to  be  known 
as  the  "  academy,"  and  it  was  here  that  Dyer  H.  Sanborn,  the 
author  of  Sanborn's  Grammar,  taught  for  five  years  at  a  later 
date.  Mary  was  then  nearing  her  fifteenth  birthday,  and  as 
she  had  received  almost  no  instruction  at  Bow,  the  family  hoped 
that  another  attempt  at  school  might  be  more  successful. 

It  is  one  proof  of  Mary's  remarkable  personality  that  her  old 
associates  remember  her,  even  as  a  child,  so  clearly.  The  Baker 
family  was  not  one  to  be  readily  forgotten  in  any  community, 
and  Mary  had  all  the  Baker  characteristics,  besides  a  few  im- 
pressive ones  on  her  own  account.  The  writer  has  talked  with 
scores  of  Mary  Baker's  contemporaries  in  the  New  Hampshire 
villages  where  she  lived,  and  in  their  descriptions  of  her,  their 
recollections  of  her  conduct,  and  their  estimates  of  her  character, 
there  is  a  remarkable  consistency.  Allowance  must  always  be 
made,  in  dealing  with  the  early  life  of  a  famous  person,  for 
the  dishonour  of  a  prophet  in  his  own  country.  Such  allow- 
ance has  been  made  here,  and  nothing  is  set  down  which  is  not 
supported  by  the  testimony  of  many  witnesses  among  her 
neighbours  and  relatives  and  associates. 

When  Mary  attended  the  district  school  in  Tilton,  she  is 
remembered  as  a  pretty  and  graceful  girl,  delicately  formed, 
and  with  extremely  small  hands  and  feet.  Her  face  was  too 
long  and  her  forehead  too  high  to  answer  the  requirements  of 
perfect  beauty,  but  her  complexion  was  clear  and  of  a  delicate 
colour,  and  her  waving  brown  hair  was  abundant  and  always 


16  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

becomingly  arranged.  Her  eyes  were  large  and  gray,  and 
when  overcharged  with  expression,  as  was  often  the  case,  they 
deepened  in  colour  until  they  seemed  to  be  black.  She  was 
always  daintily  dressed,  and  even  at  fifteen  succeeded  in  keeping 
closer  to  the  fashions  than  was  common  in  the  community  or 
in  her  own  home.  But  in  spite  of  these  advantages  Mary  was 
not  altogether  attractive.  Her  manners  and  speech  were  marred 
by  a  peculiar  affectation.  Her  unusual  nervous  organisation 
may  have  accounted  for  her  self-consciousness  and  her  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  presence  of  others,  but  whatever  the  cause, 
Mary  always  seemed  to  be  "  showing  off  "  for  the  benefit  of  those 
about  her,  and  her  extremely  languishing  manners  were  un- 
kindly commented  upon  even  at  a  time  when  languishing  man- 
ners were  fashionable.  In  speaking  she  used  many  words,  the 
longer  and  more  unusual  the  better,  and  her  pronunciation  and 
application  of  them  were  original. 

Sarah  Jane  Bodwell,  a  daughter  of  the  Congregational  min- 
ister at  Sanbornton  Square,  "  kept  "  the  school  then,  and  find- 
ing Mary  very  backward  in  her  studies  in  spite  of  her  age 
and  precociousness,  she  placed  her  in  a  class  with  small  children. 
Mary  seemed  indifferent  about  getting  into  a  more  advanced 
class  and  did  not  apply  herself.  Her  old  schoolmates  say  that 
she  was  indolent  and  spent  her  time  lolling  in  her  seat  or 
scribbling  on  her  slate,  and  apparently  was  incapable  of  con- 
centrated or  continuous  thought. 

"  I  remember  Mary  Baker  very  well,"  said  one  of  her  class- 
mates now  living  in  Tilton.  "  She  began  to  come  to  district 
school  in  the  early  summer  of  1836.  I  recollect  her  very  dis- 
tinctly because  she  sat  just  in  front  of  me,  and  because  she 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  17 

was  such  a  big  girl  to  be  in  our  class.  I  was  only  nine,  but 
I  lielpcd  her  with  her  arithmetic  when  she  needed  help.  We 
studied  Smith's  Grammar  and  ciphered  by  ourselves  in  Adams's 
New  Arithmetic,  and  when  she  left  school  in  three  or  four  weeks 
we  had  both  reached  long  division.  She  left  on  account  of 
sickness. 

"  I  remember  what  a  pretty  girl  she  was,  and  how  nicely 
she  wore  her  hair.  She  usually  let  it  hang  in  ringlets,  but  one 
day  she  appeared  at  school  with  her  hair  '  done  up  '  like  a 
young  lady.  She  told  us  that  style  of  doing  it  was  called  a 
'  French  Twist,'  a  new  fashion  which  we  had  never  seen  before. 
In  spite  of  her  backwardness  at  books  she  assumed  a  very 
superior  air,  and  by  her  sentimental  posturing  she  managed 
to  attract  the  attention  of  the  whole  school.  She  loved  to 
impress  us  with  fine  stories  about  herself  and  her  family.  The 
schoolgirls  did  not  like  her,  and  they  made  fun  of  her  as  school- 
girls will.  I  knew  her  for  a  long  time  afterward,  as  we  grew 
up  in  the  same  village,  but  I  can't  say  that  Mary  changed  much 
with  her  years." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  own  story  of  her  early  education  should  also 
be  considered.  In  her  autobiography.  Retrospection  and  In- 
trospection, she  says  that  she  was  kept  out  of  school  much  of 
the  time  because  her  father  "  was  taught  to  believe  "  that  her 
brain  was  too  large  for  her  body;  that  her  brother  Albert 
taught  her  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew ;  and  her  favourite  child- 
hood studies  were  Natural  Philosophy,  Logic,  and  Moral  Sci- 
ence. From  childhood,  too,  Mrs.  Eddy  recalls,  she  was  a 
verse-maker,  and  "  at  ten  years  of  age  I  was  as  familiar  with 
Lindley  Murray's  Grammar  as  with  the  Westminster  Catechism ; 


18  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

and  the  latter  I  had  to  I'cpeat  every  Sunday."  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  also  said  that  she  "  graduated  from  Dyer  H.  Sanborn's 
Academy  at  Tilton."  But  at  present  she  makes  no  pretension 
to  such  scholarly  attainments.  "  After  my  discovery  of  Chris- 
tian Science,"  she  says,  "  most  of  the  knowledge  I  had  gleaned 
from  schoolbooks  vanished  like  a  dream."  Only  Lindley  Murray 
remained,  and  he  in  an  apotheosized  state.  "Learning  was  so 
illumined,"  she  writes,  "  that  grammar  was  eclipsed.  Etymology 
was  divine  history,  voicing  the  idea  of  God  in  man's  origin  and 
signification.  Syntax  was  spiritual  order  and  unity.  Prosody, 
the  song  of  angels,  and  no  earthly  or  inglorious  theme." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  schoolmates  are  not  able  to  reconcile  her  story 
with  their  own  recollections.  They  declare  frankly  that  they 
do  not  believe  Albert  Baker  taught  her  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin.  He  entered  college  when  Mary  was  nine,  and  left  home 
when  she  was  thirteen.  There  were,  they  say,  no  graduations 
from  Dyer  H.  Sanborn's  Academy,  for  the  girls  and  boys  left 
school  when  they  were  old  enough  to  go  to  work  or  to  marry. 
They  insist  that  Mary's  education  was  finished  when  she  reached 
long  division  in  the  district  school. 

At  church,  too,  Mary  made  a  vivid  impression.  Like  the 
rest  of  Mark  Baker's  family,  she  attended  service  regularly; 
and  she  took  pains  with  her  costume,  and  the  timing  of  her 
arrival,  so  that  members  of  the  congregation  have  retained  a 
distinct  picture  of  Mary  Baker  as  she  appeared  at  church. 
She  always  made  a  ceremonious  entrance,  coming  up  the  aisle 
after  the  rest  of  the  congregation  were  seated,  and  attracting 
the  general  attention  by  her  pretty  clothes  and  ostentatious 
manner.     No  trace  of  early  piety  can  be  found  in  a  first-hand 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  19 

study  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life,  yet  in  her  autobiography  she  con- 
stantly refers  to  deep  religious  experiences  of  her  childhood. 
As  her  chief  recollection  of  Bow  farm  days,  she  relates  a 
peculiar  experience,  intended  to  show  that,  like  little  Samuel, 
she  received  ghostly  visitations  in  early  youth.     She  writes : 

For  some  twelve  months,  when  I  was  about  eight  years  old,  I  repeatedly- 
heard  a  voice,  calling  me  distinctly  by  name,  three  times,  in  an  ascending 
scale.  I  thought  this  was  my  mother's  voice,  and  sometimes  went  to  her, 
beseeching  her  to  tell  me  what  she  wanted.  Her  answer  was  always: 
"Nothing,  child!  What  do  you  mean?"  Then  I  would  say:  "Mother, 
who  did  call  me?  I  heard  somebody  call  Mary,  three  times!"  This  con- 
tinued until  I  grew  discouraged,  and  my  mother  was  perplexed  and 
anxious. 

At  another  time  her  cousin,  Mehitable  Huntoon,  heard  the 
voice  and  told  Mary's  mother  about  it.  "  That  night,"  con- 
tinues Mrs.  Eddy's  narrative,  "  before  going  to  rest,  my  mother 
read  to  me  the  Scriptural  narrative  of  little  Samuel,  and  bade 
me,  when  the  voice  called  again,  to  reply  as  he  did,  '  Speak, 
Lord;  for  thy  servant  heareth.'  The  voice  came;  but  I  did 
not  answer.  Afterward  I  wept,  and  prayed  that  God  would 
forgive  me,  resolving  to  do,  next  time,  as  my  mother  had 
bidden  me.  When  the  call  came  again  I  did  answer,  in  the 
words  of  Samuel,  but  never  again  to  the  material  senses  was 
that  mysterious  call  repeated." 

Mrs.  Eddy  tells  the  story  of  her  admission  to  church  member- 
ship and  of  her  discussions  with  the  elders,  and  Christian 
Scientists  draw  a  parallel  between  this  incident  and  that  of 
Christ  debating  at  the  age  of  twelve  with  the  wise  men  in  the 
temple.  "  At  the  age  of  twelve,"  writes  Mrs.  Eddy,  "  I  was 
admitted  to  the  Congregationalist  (Trinitarian)  Church."  She 
describes  her  horror  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  while  she 


aO  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

was  preparing  to  enter  the  church,  and  how  she  wept  over  the 
necessity  of  believing  that  her  unregenerate  sisters  and  brothers 
would  be  damned.  Peace,  however,  followed  a  season  of  prayer, 
and  when  she  finally  appeared  at  church  for  examination  on 
doctrinal  points,  she  flatly  refused  to  accept  that  of  predes- 
tination.    She  says : 

Distinctly  do  I  recall  what  followed.  I  stoutly  maintained  that  I  was 
willing  to  trust  God,  and  take  my  chance  of  spiritual  safety  with  my 
brothers  and  sisters, — not  one  of  whom  had  then  made  any  profession 
of  religion, — even  if  my  credal  doubts  left  me  outside  the  doors.  .  .  . 
Nevertheless,  he  (the  minister)  persisted  in  the  assertion  that  I  had  been 
truly  regenerated,  and  asked  me  to  say  how  I  felt  when  the  new  light 
dawned  within  me.  I  replied  that  I  could  only  answer  him  in  the  words 
of  the  Psalmist:  "Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart;  try  me,  and 
know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead 
me  in  the  way  everlasting." 

This  was  so  earnestly  said,  that  even  the  oldest  church-members  wept. 
After  the  meeting  was  over  they  came  and  kissed  me.  To  the  astonish- 
ment of  many,  the  good  clergyman's  heart  also  melted,  and  he  received 
me  into  their  communion,  and  my  protest  along  with  me. 

The  official  record  bearing  on  this  point,  taken  from  the 
clerk's  book  of  the  Tilton  Congregational  Church,  is  as  follows: 

1838,  July  26,  Received  into  this  church,  Stephen  Grant,  Esq.,  John 
Gilly  and  his  wife  Hannah,  Mrs.  Susan  French,  wife  of  William  French, 
Miss  Mary  A.  M.  Baker,  by  profession,  the  two  former  receiving  the 
ordinance   of  baptism.     Greenaugh   McQuestion,   Scribe. 

As  Mary  Baker  was  born  on  July  16,  1821,  and  as  this 
record  is  dated  "  1838,  July  26,"  she  was  evidently  seventeen, 
and  not  twelve,  when  the  event  described  above  took  place. 

At  home  Mary  was  still  allowed  to  have  her  own  way  as 
completely  as  in  her  baby  days.  Indeed,  by  this  time  she,  as 
well  as  her  family,  had  come  to  consider  this  privilege  a 
natural  right,  and  she  grew  constantly  more  insistent  in  her 
demands  upon   her  parents  and  brother  and  sisters,  who  had 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  21 

found  by  long  experience  that  the  only  way  to  live  at  all  with 
Mary  was  to  give  in  to  all  her  whims.  In  a  household  where 
personal  labour  was  exacted  from  each  member,  Mary  spent 
her  days  in  idleness.  Where  her  sisters  dressed  plainly,  she 
went  clad  in  fine  and  dainty  raiment,  and  where  implicit  obedi- 
ence was  required  of  the  others,  Mary  ignored,  and  more  often 
opposed,  the  wishes  of  her  father ;  and  in  the  clashes  between 
them,  her  mother  and  sisters  usually — at  least  in  her  younger 
years — ranged  themselves  on  her  side,  and  against  her  father. 
Mary's  hysteria  was,  of  course,  her  most  effective  argument 
in  securing  her  way.  Like  the  sword  of  Damocles,  it  hung 
perilously  over  the  household,  which  constantly  surrendered  and 
conceded  and  made  shift  with  Mary  to  avert  the  inevitable 
climax.  Confusion  and  excitement  and  agony  of  mind  lest 
Mary  should  die  was  the  invariable  consequence  of  her  hysterical 
outbreaks,  and  the  business  of  the  house  and  farm  was  at  a 
standstill  until  the  tragedy  had  passed. 

These  attacks,  which  continued  until  very  late  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
life,  have  been  described  to  the  writer  by  many  eye-witnesses, 
some  of  whom  have  watched  by  her  bedside  and  treated  her 
in  Christian  Science  for  her  affliction.  At  times  the  attack 
resembled  convulsions.  Mary  fell  headlong  to  the  floor,  writh- 
ing and  screaming  in  apparent  agony.  Again  she  dropped  as 
if  lifeless,  and  lay  limp  and  motionless,  until  restored.  At 
other  times  she  became  rigid  like  a  cataleptic,  and  continued 
for  a  time  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation.  At  home  the 
family  worked  over  her,  and  the  doctor  was  sent  for,  and  Mary 
invariably  recovered  rapidly  after  a  few  hours ;  but  year  after 
year  her   relatives    fully   expected   that   she   would  die   in   one 


22  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

of  these  spasms.  Nothing  had  the  power  of  exciting  Mark 
Baker  like  one  of  Mary's  "  fits,"  as  they  were  called.  His 
neighbours  in  Tilton  remember  him  as  he  went  to  fetch  Dr. 
Ladd,®  how  he  lashed  his  horses  down  the  hill,  standing  upright 
in  his  wagon  and  shouting  in  his  tremendous  voice,  "  Mary 
is  dying !  " 

Outside  the  family,  Mary's  spells  did  not  inspire  the  same 
anxiety.  The  unsympathetic  called  them  "  tantrums,"  after  a 
better  acquaintance  with  her,  and  declared  that  she  used  her 
nerves  to  get  her  own  way.  In  later  years  Mark  Baker  came 
to  .share  this  neighbourhood  opinion,  and  on  one  occasion,  after 
Mary  had  grown  to  womanhood,  he  tested  her  power  of  self- 
control  by  allowing  her  to  remain  on  the  floor,  where  she  had 
thrown  herself  when  her  will  was  crossed,  and  leaving  her  to 
herself.  An  hour  later  when  he  opened  the  door,  the  room 
was  deserted.  Mary  had  gone  upstairs  to  her  room,  and  noth- 
ing was  heard  from  her  until  she  appeared  at  supper,  fully 
recovered.  After  that  Mary's  nerves  lost  their  power  over 
her  father  to  a  great  extent,  and  when  hard  put  to  it,  he 
sometimes  complained  to  his  friends.  A  neighbour,  passing 
the  house  one  morning,  stopped  at  Mark's  gate  and  inquired 
why  Mary,  who  was  at  that  moment  rushing  wildly  up  and 
down  the  second-story  piazza,  was  so  excited;  to  which  Mark 
repHcd  bitterly:  "The  Bible  says  Mary  Magdalen  had  seven 
devils,  but  our  Mary  has  got   ten !  " 

Unquestionably,  Mary's  attacks  represented,  to  a  great  de- 
gree, a  genuine  affliction.  Although  Dr.  Ladd  sometimes  impa- 
tiently diagnosed  them  as  "  hysteria  mingled  with  bad  temper," 
*  Dr.    Nathaniel   G.   Ladd,    the   village   physician. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  23 

he  was,  without  doubt,  deeply  interested  in  her  case.  He 
dabbled  a  little  in  mesmerism  and  sometimes  experimented  on 
Mary,  whom  he  found  a  sensitive  subject.  He  discovered  that  he 
could  partly  control  her  movements  by  mental  suggestion.  "  I 
can  make  that  girl  stop  in  the  street  any  time  merely  by  willing 
it,"  he  used  to  tell  his  friends,  and  he  often  demonstrated  that 
he  could  do  it. 

Mesmerism  was  a  new  subject  in  New  England  in  those  days, 
and  there  was  much  experimenting  and  excitement  over  it. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  it  formed  one  of  the  early  influences 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  life,  and  that  it  left  an  indelible  impression 
upon  her  supersensitive  organisation.  Charles  Poyen,  a  French 
disciple  of  Mesmer,  had  travelled  through  New  England,  lectur- 
ing and  performing  marvels  of  mesmeric  power  in  the  same 
towns  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  then  lived.  In  his  book.  Animal 
Magnetism  in  New  England,  which  was  published  in  1837, 
he  gives  an  account  of  his  experiences  there  and  says :  "  Animal 
magnetism  indisputably  constituted  in  several  parts  of  New 
England  the  most  stirring  topic  of  conversation  among  all 
classes  of  society."  He  called  it  a  "great  Truth,"  "The 
Power  of  Mind  Over  Matter,"  a  "  demonstration,"  a  "  discovery 
given  by  God,"  and  a  "  science."  Whether  or  not  Mary  Baker 
saw  or  heard  Poyen,  or,  read  his  book,  she  must  have  heard 
of  his  theories,  and  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  phrases 
he  used,  as  they  were  matter  of  common  household  discussion 
and  would  appeal  strongly  to  a  girl  of  Mary's  temperament. 
In  Christian  Science  she  has  given  an  important  place  to 
"Animal  Magnetism,"  and  there  is  a  chapter  devoted  to  it 
in  her  book.  Science  and  Health. 


U  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Andrew  Jackson  Davis/  afterward  the  celebrated  Spiritual- 
ist, had  already  begun  to  astound  the  public  by  his  remarkable 
theories  of  the  universe  and  disease,  and  by  liis  extraordinary 
literary  feats.  The  healing  of  disease  by  means  outside  regu- 
lar channels  was  commonly  reported,  and  new  religious  ideas 
were  developing.  It  was  a  more  prolific  period  than  usual  for 
all  sorts  of  mystery  and  quackery  in  New  England. 

Another  influence  of  these  early  years,  which  had  an  eifect 
upon  her  later  career,  may  be  traced  to  the  sect  known  as 
Shakers,  which  had  sprung  up  in  that  section  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. Their  main  community  was  at  East  Canterbury,  N.  H., 
five  miles  from  Tilton,  and  Mary  Baker  was  familiar  with  their 
appearance,  their  peculiar  costume,  and  their  community  life. 
She  knew  their  religious  doctrines  and  spiritual  exaltations,  and 
was  acquainted  with  their  habits  of  industry  and  thrift.  In 
her  girlhood  there  were  still  living  in  the  neighbourhood  people 
who  remembered  Ann  Lee,^*^  the  founder  of  the  sect.  All 
through  Mary's  youth  the  Shakers  were  much  in  the  courts 
because  of  the  scandalous  charges  brought  against  them,  and 
on  one  occasion  they  were  defended  by  Franklin  Pierce,  in  Avhose 
office  Albert  Baker  studied  law.  Laws  directed  against  their 
community  were  constantly  presented  to  the  Legislature,  and 
complaints  against  them  were  frequently  heard.  A  famous 
"  exposure  "  of  Shaker  methods,  written  by  Mary  Dyer,  who 
had  been  a  member  of  the  Canterbury  community,  was  published 
in  Concord  in  1847;  and  the  Shakers  and  their  doings  formed 
one  of  the  exciting  topics  of  the  times. 


•Author  of  The  Great  Hannonia,  etc.     See  Appendix  B 
"  Fleeing    from    England    in    1774,    Ann    ' 
America  at  Concord  and  the  neighbouring 


Fleeing    from    England    in    1774,    Ann    Lee    spent    her    first    few    years    in 
■rica  at  Concord  and  the  neighbouring  towns. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  25 

That  these  happenings  made  a  profound  impression  on  Mary 
Baker  and  became  irrevocably  a  part  of  her  susceptible  nature 
is  evident;  for  we  find  her  reverting  to  and  making  use  of 
certain  phases  of  Shakerism  when,  later,  she  had  established 
a  religious  system  of  her  own.^^ 

When  Mary  was  twenty-two  years  old  she  married  George 
Washington  Glover,  a  son  of  John  and  Nancy  Glover,  who 
were  neighbours  of  the  Bakers  at  Bow.  "  Wash  "  Glover,  as 
he  was  called,  was  a  big,  kind-hearted  young  fellow,  who  had 
learned  the  mason's  trade  with  Mary's  brother,  Samuel,  and 
he  was  an  expert  workman.  The  families  were  already  con- 
nected through  the  marriage  of  Samuel  Baker  to  Glover's 
sister,  Eliza.  After  learning  his  trade,  Glover  had  gone  South, 
where  there  was  a  demand  for  Northern  labour,  and  it  was  on 
one  of  his  visits  home  that  he  fell  in  love  with  Mary  Baker. 
They  were  married  at  Mark  Baker's  house  December  12,  1843, 
and  Glover  took  his  bride  back  with  him  to  Charleston,  S.  C. 
Six  months  later  he  was  stricken  with  yellow  fever  and  died 
in  June,  1844,  at  Wilmington,  N.  C,  where  he  had  gone  on 
business. 

His  young  wife  was  left  in  a  miserable  plight,  being  far  from 
home,  among  strangers  and  without  money.  Mr.  Glover,  how- 
ever, had  been  a  Freemason,  and  his  brothers  of  that  order 
came  to  his  wife's  relief.  They  buried  her  husband  and  paid 
her  railroad  fare  to  New  York,  where  she  was  met  by  her 
brother  George  and  taken  back  to  her  father's  house.  Here, 
the  following  September,  her  son  was  born,  and  she  named  liim 
George  Washington,  after  his  father. 

"  See  Appendix  C. 


CHAPTER  II 

MRS.  GLOVER  AS  A  WIDOW  IN  TILTON HER  INTEREST  IN  MESMER- 
ISM    AND     CLAIRVOYANCE THE     DISPOSAL     OF     HER     SON 

MARRIAGE   TO   DANIEL   PATTERSON 

Mrs.  Glover  had  now  to  face  a  hard  situation.  Her  brief 
married  life  had  ended  in  adversity,  and  returning  a  widow  to 
her  father's  house,  she  was  without  means  of  support  for 
herself  or  her  child,  and  she  had  neither  the  training  nor 
the  disposition  to  take  up  an  occupation,  or  to  make  herself 
useful  at  home.  Her  sisters  and  brothers  were  married  and 
gone  from  home,  and  her  parents  were  growing  old  and  less 
able  to  cope  with  her  turbulent  moods.  Embarrassing  as  this 
position  would  have  been  to  most  women,  Mrs.  Glover  did  not 
apparently  find  it  so.  She  took  it  for  granted  that  she  was 
to  receive  not  only  the  sympathy  of  her  relatives  but  their 
support  and  constant  service,  and  that  they  should  assume  the 
care  of  her  child.  She  divided  her  time  between  her  father's 
house  and  that  of  her  sister  Abby,  and  her  baby  was  left  to  her 
mother  and  sister  or  sent  up  the  valley  to  a  Mrs.  Varney,  whose 
son,  John  Varney,  worked  for  the  Tiltons.  Frequently,  too, 
the  child  stayed  with  Mahala  Sanborn,  a  neighbour  who  had 
attended  Mrs.  Glover  at  his  birth.  But  wherever  he  was,  it  was 
not  with  his  mother,  who  had  shown  a  curious  aversion  to  him 
from  the  beginning.     "  Mary,"  said  her  father,  "  acts  like  an 

26 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  27 

old   ewe   that   won't   own   its   lamb.     She  won't  have  the  boy 
near  her." 

It  must  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the  Baker  family  that  they 
met  Mrs.  Glover's  demands  with  a  patience  and  faithfulness 
that  seems  remarkable  from  a  family  of  such  impatient  and 
dominating  character.  They  gave  her  the  best  room  in  each 
house  and  regulated  their  domestic  affairs  with  a  view  to  her 
comfort.  When  her  nerves  were  in  such  a  state  of  irritation 
that  the  slightest  sound  annoyed  her,  Mark  Baker  spread  the 
road  in  front  of  his  house  with  straw  and  tan  bark  to  deaden 
the  sound  of  passing  waggons.  The  noise  of  children  disturbed 
her,  so  the  baby  was  sent  to  Mahala  Sanborn  or  to  Mrs. 
Tilton.  At  her  sister's  house  they  tiptoed  about  the  rooms 
and  placed  covered  bricks  against  every  sill  that  the  doors 
might  close  softly.  At  both  houses  she  was  rocked  to  sleep 
like  a  child  in  the  arms  of  her  father  or  her  sister,  and  then 
gently  carried  to  bed.  Sometimes,  at  the  Tiltons',  this  task 
fell  to  John  Varney,  the  hired  man,  who  like  the  members  of  her 
own  family,  rocked  her  to  sleep  and  carried  her  to  bed.  To 
put  an  end  to  this  practice,  Mrs.  Tilton  ordered  a  large  cradle 
made  for  Mrs.  Glover.  It  was  built  with  a  balustrade  and  an 
extension  seat  at  one  end  upon  which  Varney  could  sit,  and  by 
rocking  himself  as  in  a  chair,  also  rock  the  cradle.  Another 
symptom  of  her  pathological  condition  was  her  intense  desire 
for  swinging.  A  large  swing  was  hung  from  hooks  in  the 
ceiling  of  her  room  at  Mrs.  Tilton's,  and  here  she  was  swung 
hours  at  a  time  by  her  young  nephew,  Albert  Tilton.  When 
Albert  tired  of  the  exercise  he  sometimes  hired  a  substitute, 
so   that  "  swinging  Mrs.   Glover "  became  a  popular  way   of 


28  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

earning  an  honest  penny  among  the  village  boys.  One  of  these 
"  boys "  has  described  his  experience  to  the  writer.  "  Some 
days,"  he  said,  "  Mrs.  Glover  was  so  nervous  she  couldn't  have 
anybody  in  the  room  with  her,  and  then  I  used  to  tie  a  string 
to  the  seat  and  swing:  her  from  outside  her  bedroom  door." 
Mark  Baker  and  John  Vamey  were  obliged  often  to  carry  her 
in  their  arms  and  walk  the  floor  with  her  at  night  to  soothe 
lier  excitable  nerves,  and  when  everything  else  failed,  Mark 
used  to  send  for  old  "  Boston  John  "  Clark  to  come  and  quiet 
Mrs.  Glover  by  mesmerism.  Clark  was  a  bridge-builder  from 
one  of  the  villages  up  the  valley  who  had  acquired  some  reputa- 
tion as  a  mesmerist,  practising,  like  Dr.  Ladd,  upon  any  sub- 
ject who  was  willing,  and  particularly  happy  when  he  dis- 
covered a  "  sensitive  "  like  Mrs.  Glover.  He  never  failed  to 
soothe  her,  and  after  one  of  his  visits,  the  Baker  family  enjoyed 
a  space  of  quiet  from  the  incessant  turmoil  of  Mary's  nerves. 
Yet  Mrs.  Glover  was  neither  helpless  nor  incapacitated.  She  did 
not  keep  to  her  bed  and  she  was  able  to  go  about  the  village  and 
to  attend  to  whatever  she  was  interested  in.  Her  neighbours 
remember  her  at  church  gatherings  and  at  the  sewing  circle, 
where  she  went  regularly  although  she  did  not  sew.  It  was 
one  of  Mrs.  Glover's  notions,  after  her  six  months  in  Charles- 
ton, to  imitate  the  Southern  women  In  little  matters  of  dress 
and  manner,  and  at  the  scAvIng  circle  she  sat  and  gave  voluble 
descriptions  of  her  life  in  the  South  and  the  favourable  Im- 
pression she  had  made  there,  deploring  the  loss  of  the  daily 
horseback  ride  she  had  been  accustomed  to  take  in  South 
Carolina. 

Twice  Mrs.  Glover  made  an  effort  at  self-support.     While 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  29 

living  with  Mrs.  Tilton  she  taught  a  class  of  children,  holding 

the  sessions  in  a  small  building,  once  used  as  a  shop,  on  the 

Tilton  place.      After  a  few  weeks'  trial  she  gave  it  up.     A  little 

later  she  repeated  the  experiment,  but  with  the   same   result. 

Although  Mrs.  Glover  was  later  to  have  a  "  college  "  of  her 

own,  and  to  be  its  president  and  sole  instructor,  teaching  was 

assuredly  not  her  vocation  in  these  early  Tilton  days.     Perhaps 

a  dozen  of  her  Tilton  pupils  are  still  living,  and  they  arc  fond 

of  relating  anecdotes  of  the  days  when   they  went  to  school 

to  Mrs.  Glover.     They  all  remember  that  the  teacher  required 

the   class   to   march   around    the   room    singing   the    following 

refrain : 

"  We  will  tell  Mrs.  Glover 
How  much  we  love  her; 
By  the  light  of  the  moon 
We  will  come  to  her."  ^ 

Mrs.  Glover  began  now  to  enjoy  considerable  local  fame  on 
account  of  her  susceptibility  to  mesmeric  influence,  and  her 
clairvoyant  powers.  She  had  developed  a  habit  of  falling  into 
trances.  Often,  in  the  course  of  a  social  call,  she  would  close 
her  eyes  and  sink  into  a  state  of  apparent  unconsciousness,  dur- 
ing which  she  could  describe  scenes  and  events.  The  curious 
and   superstitious  began   to  seek  her  ad^^ce  while  she  was  in 

'  This  song  was  evidently  an  adaptation  of  a  popular  "  round  "  of  that  period, 
which  ran  : 

"  Go   to   Jane   Glover 
And    tell    her   I    love    her 
And  by  the  light  of  the  moon 
I   will   come   to   her." 

A  correspondent  gives  the  information  that  in  Crieff,  Perthshire,  Scotland, 
a  similar  "  round  "  was  in  popular  use  previous  to  the  year  1840,  the  words 
of  which  were  : 

"  Go   to   Joan   Glover 
And    tell    her    I    love    her 
And  by  the  light  of  the  mooa 
J   will  come   to  her." 


30  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

this  trance  state.  "  Boston  John  "  Clark  experimented  with 
her,  putting  her  into  the  mesmeric  sleep  and  attempting  to 
trace  lost  or  stolen  articles  by  means  of  her  clairvoyance. 
Once  she  tried  to  locate  a  drowned  body.  These  efforts  were 
not  attended  with  any  great  success,  but  interest  in  mesmerism 
and  clairvoyance  ran  high,  and  any  one  who  could  fall  into 
a  trance  and  describe  things  was  sure  to  be  am  object  of  wonder. 
John  Varney  conceived  the  notion  of  turning  this  talent  of 
Mrs.  Glover's  to  practical  account.  "  Boston  John  "  was  sent 
for,  and  Mrs.  Glover,  at  Varney's  suggestion,  described  the 
hiding-place  of  Captain  Kidd's  treasure,  which  was  then  a 
topic  of  exciting  speculation.  She  indicated  a  spot  near  the 
city  of  Lynn,  Mass.  Varney  and  his  cronies  set  out  for  the 
place  and  spent  several  days  digging  for  the  treasure,  but 
without  success. 

A  few  years  later  when  spiritualism  swept  over  the  country, 
Mrs.  Glover  took  on  the  symptoms  of  a  "  medium."  Like 
the  Fox  sisters,  she  heard  mysterious  rappings  at  night,  she 
saw  "  spirits  "  of  the  departed  standing  by  her  bedside,  and 
she  received  messages  in  writing  from  the  dead.  There  are 
people  living  who  remember  very  distinctly  the  spiritism  craze 
in  Tilton,  and  who  witnessed  Mrs.  Glover's  manifestations  of 
mediumship.  One  elderly  woman  recalls  a  night  spent  with 
Mrs.  Glover  when  her  rest  was  constantly  disturbed  by  the 
strange  rappings  and  by  Mary's  frequent  announcements  of 
the  "  appearance  "  of  different  spirits  as  they  came  and  went. 

Mark  Baker's  house  was  one  of  those  where  spirit  seances 
were  held.  The  whole  community  was  more  or  less  interested 
and    a   few   went   to   extremes.     One   of   this   number   became 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  31 

so  excited  over  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  Mrs.  Glover's 
writing  mediumship  that  his  mind  was  temporarily  unbalanced. 
A  foraier  Tilton  woman,  who  remembers  these  events,  writes 
of  Mrs.  Glover's  ability  as  a  writing  medium :  "  This  was  by 
no  means  looked  upon  as  anything  discreditable,  but  only  as 
a  matter  of  great  astonishment." 

During  these  years,  too,  Mrs.  Glover  tried  her  hand  at 
writing.  She  spent  many  hours  in  her  room  "  composing 
poetry,"  which  sometimes  appeared  in  the  poet's  comers  of 
local  newspapers,  and  there  is  a  tradition  that  she  wrote  a  love 
story  for  Godey's  Lady's  Book.  This  literary  tendency  was 
a  valuable  asset,  which  Mrs.  Glover  made  the  most  of.  It 
gave  her  a  certain  prestige  in  the  community,  and  she  was  not 
loth  to  pose  as  an  "  authoress."  Perhaps  it  was  this  early 
habit  of  looking  upon  herself  as  a  literary  authority  which 
led  her  to  take  those  curious  liberties  with  English  which  have 
always  been  characteristic  of  her.  She  drew  largely  upon  the 
credit  of  the  language,  sometimes  producing  a  word  or  evolving 
a  pronunciation  which  completely  floored  her  hearers.  Some 
of  these  words  and  phrases  have  passed  into  local  bywords. 
"  When  I  vociferate  so  loudly,  why  do  you  not  respond  with 
greater  alacrity .?  "  she  sometimes  seriously  demanded  of  her 
attendants.  She  referred  to  plain  John  Varney  as  "Mr. 
Ve-owney,"  and  few  ordinary  words  were  left  unadorned.  She 
sought  also  to  improve  upon  nature  in  the  matter  of  her  o^vn 
good  looks.  Although  she  had  a  beautiful  complexion,  she 
rouged  and  powdered,  and  although  she  had  excellent  teeth,  she 
had  some  of  them  replaced  by  false  ones,  "  made  entirely  of 
platinum,"  as  Mrs.  Glover  described  them. 


32  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

On  the  whole,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Mrs.  Glover  was  not  taken 
seriously  in  her  own  town.  Artificiality  spread  over  all  her 
acts,  and  in  no  relation  in  life  did  she  impress  even  her  nearest 
friends  or  her  own  family  with  genuine  feeling  or  sincerity. 
Indeed,  she  was  bitterly  censured  in  those  years  for  the  more 
active  faults  of  selfish  and  unfilial  conduct  and  a  strange  lack 
of  the  sense  of  maternal  duty.  In  1851  Mrs.  Glover  had  given 
her  son,  George,  to  Mahala  Sanborn.  The  boy,  having  reached 
the  age  of  seven,  was  growing  too  large  to  be  sent  about 
from  one  house  to  another  to  be  looked  after.  Mrs.  Glover's 
mother  had  died  of  typhoid  fever  in  November,  1849,  and 
Mi*s.  Tilton  was  growing  each  year  more  impatient  and  weary 
of  Mrs.  Glover's  conduct.  So  when  Mahala  Sanborn  married 
Russell  Cheney  and  was  preparing  to  move  away  from  Tilton, 
Mrs.  Glover  begged  her  to  take  George  to  live  with  her  perma- 
nently. Mrs.  Cheney,  who  was  attached  to  the  boy,  at  last 
consented  to  do  so,  and  George  accompanied  her  and  her  hus- 
band to  their  new  home  in  North  Groton,  and  was  called  by 
their  name. 

Mark  Baker,  in  the  fall  of  1850,  had  married  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Patterson  Duncan,  a  widow  of  Londonderry,  N.  H.,  and  moved 
into  the  village  of  Tilton.  Mrs.  Glover  continued  to  live  at 
home,  spending  most  of  her  time  there  now,  for  her  step- 
mother was  of  a  pliable  nature  and  gentle  disposition,  and 
had  taken  up  the  task  of  attending  to  Mary's  wants  with  a 
patience  equal  to  that  of  Mrs.  Glover's  own  mother. 

Notwithstanding  Mrs.  Glover's  shortcomings  of  temper,  she 
could  be  amiable  and  attractive  enough  when  she  chose.  To 
men   she  always   showed  her  most  winning   side,   and   she  had 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  33 

never  lacked  admirers.  One  of  her  suitors  at  this  time  was 
Dr.  Daniel  Patterson,  an  itinerant  dentist  practising  in  Tilton 
and  the  villages  thereabouts.  Dr.  Patterson  was  large,  hand- 
some, and  genial.  He  wore  a  full  beard,  dressed  in  a  frock 
coat  and  silk  hat,  and  was  popular  among  his  patrons.  Al- 
though he  was  industrious  enough  at  his  business  and  made  a 
living  sufficient  for  himself,  he  was  not  a  genius  at  money- 
making,  and  he  was  not  inclined  to  exert  himself  much  more 
than  was  necessary.  From  his  first  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Glover  he  was  determined  to  marry  her.  Conscientious  Mark 
Baker,  when  he  heard  of  Dr.  Patterson's  intention,  visited  the 
dentist  and  told  him  of  Mary's  ill-health  and  nervous  afflictions, 
but  interference  only  strengthened  the  doctor's  determination, 
and  on  June  21,  1853,  the  wedding  took  place  at  Mark  Baker's 
house,  although  Dr.  Patterson  was  obliged  to  carry  his  bride 
downstairs  from  her  room  for  the  ceremony,  and  back  again 
when  it  was  over.  Mrs.  Glover  had  been  very  ill  and  weak 
that  spring  and  was  not  yet  recovered.  After  her  marriage 
she  spent  the  days  of  her  convalescence  in  Tilton  with  her 
husband,  and  then  they  went  to  Franklin,  a  neighbouring 
village  where  Dr.  Patterson  was  practising.  But  Mrs.  Patter- 
son's invahdism,  from  being  intermittent,  soon  became  a  settled 
condition.  She  sent  for  her  cradle  while  they  were  living 
in  Franklin,  and  the  older  residents  still  recall  the  day  that 
Patterson  drove  into  town  with  a  large  waggon  containing  his 
wife's  cradle. 

From  Franklin  they  went,  in  a  short  time,  to  North  Groton, 
where  the  Cheneys  and  young  George  Glover  were  living. 
North  Groton,  in  the  southern  fringe  of  the  White  Mountains, 


34.  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

was  very  remote  and  could  be  reached  only  by  stage.  Like  all 
the  White  Mountain  region,  it  was  beautiful  in  the  summer 
season,  but  in  the  winter  it  was  rugged  and  desolate.  The 
farmhouses  were  far  apart,  and  the  roads  were  sometimes  im- 
passable. Often  one  would  not  see  a  neighbour  or  a  passerby 
for  weeks  at  a  time  when  the  snow  was  deep;  and  the  winters 
there  were  very  long.  In  a  lane  off  the  main  road,  the  Patter- 
sons lived  in  a  small  frame  house,  which  faced  a  deep  wood. 
At  the  right  rose  the  mountains.  Back  of  the  house  there  was 
a  swift  mountain  brook,  and  there  the  dentist  had  built  a  small 
sawmill,  which  he  operated  when  there  was  not  much  dentist 
work  to  do,  or  when  his  wife's  ill-health  made  it  necessary  for 
him  to  stay  closely  at  home.  He  also  practised  homoeopathy 
intermittently,  but  in  the  main  he  worked  at  his  dentistry, 
driving  to  the  nearby  towns  to  practise,  and  leaving  his  wife 
alone  or  in  the  care  of  their  occasional  servant.  There  was 
only  one  near  neighbour.  It  is  not  strange  that,  under  these 
circumstances,  Mrs.  Patterson  fell  into  a  state  of  chronic  illness 
and  developed  ways  that  were  considered  peculiar  by  her 
friends. 

Her  neighbours  in  North  Groton  tell  the  old  story  of  her 
illnesses,  her  hysteria,  her  high  temper,  and  her  unreasonable 
demands  on  her  husband.  She  required  him  to  keep  the  wooden 
bridge  over  the  brook  covered  with  sawdust  to  deaden  the 
sound  of  footsteps  or  vehicles,  and,  according  to  local  tradi- 
tion, he  spent  many  evenings  killing  discordant  frogs,  whose 
noise  disturbed  Mrs.  Patterson.  Other  stories  sink  further 
toward  burlesque.  Old  inhabitants  of  North  Groton  still  re- 
member the  long  drive  which  a  neighbour  made  for  Mrs.  Patter- 


Fliotoijrapli  l)y  Win.  W.  Wi-llc 


DANIEL   PATTERSON 
Mrs.  Eddy's  second  husband 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  35 

son  one  stormy  winter  night.  While  the  doctor  was  away 
in  Franklin,  attending  to  his  practice,  Mrs.  Patterson  fell  into 
a  state  of  depression  which  ended  in  hysterics.  A  neighbour 
was  sent  for,  and  Mrs.  Patterson  declared  she  was  dying,  and 
that  her  husband  must  be  brought  home  at  once.  To  her  own 
family  this  situation  would  not  have  seemed  the  desperate 
affair  it  was  to  Mrs.  Patterson's  neighbour.  Moved  by  the 
entreaties  of  the  dying  wife,  he  set  out  at  night  on  the  thirty- 
mile  drive  to  Franklin,  over  roads  that  were  almost  impassable 
from  heavy  snowdrifts.  His  horses  became  exhausted  and  he 
stopped  at  Bristol  only  long  enough  to  change  them  for  a 
fresh  pair.  Arriving  at  Franklin  the  next  morning  he  made 
haste  to  inform  Dr.  Patterson  of  his  wife's  dying  condition. 
To  his  astonishment  the  dentist  looked  up  and  remarked,  "  I 
think  she  will  live  until  I  finish  this  job  at  least,"  and  went 
on  with  his  work.  When  they  reached  North  Groton  late  that 
day,  they  found  Mrs.  Patterson  sitting  in  her  chair,  serene 
and  cheerful,  having  apparently  forgotten  her  indisposition 
of  the  night  before. 

Gradually  the  sympathy  of  her  neighbours  was  withdrawn 
from  Mrs.  Patterson,  and  in  North  Groton,  as  in  Tilton,  she 
came  to  be  harshly  criticised.  Many  years  afterward,  upon 
the  occasion  of  the  dedication  of  the  Christian  Science  Church 
in  Concord,  N.  H.,  July  16,  1904,  a  North  Groton  corre- 
spondent, under  the  head,  "  Time  Makes  Changes,"  wrote  in 
the  Plymouth  Record : 

With  the  announcement  of  the  dedication  of  the  Christian  Science 
Church  at  Concord,  the  gift  of  Mar\^  Baker  Glover  Patterson  Eddy,  the 
thoughts  of  many  of  the  older  residents  have  turned  back  to  the  time  when 
Mrs.  Eddy,  as  the  wife  of  Daniel  Patterson,  lived  in  this  place.     These 


36  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

people  remember  the  woman  at  that  time  as  one  who  carried  herself  above 
her  fellows.  With  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  they  remember  her  un- 
governable temper  and  hysterical  ways,  and  particularly  well  do  they 
remember  the  night  ride  of  one  of  the  citizens  who  went  for  her  husband 
to  calm  her  in  one  of  her  unreasonable  moods.  The  Mrs.  Eddy  of  to-day 
1  is  not  the  Mrs.  Patterson  of  then,  for  this  is  a  sort  of  Mr.  Hyde  and  Dr. 
Jekyll  case,  and  the  woman  is  now  credited  with  many  charitable  and 
kindly  acts. 

Although  Mrs.  Patterson  now  lived  near  her  boy,  George, 
she  did  not  see  a  great  deal  of  him.  He  had  started  to  go 
to  school,  and  used  sometimes  to  stop  at  his  mother's  house 
on  his  way  home,  but  she  never  cared  to  have  him  with  her. 
Instead,  and  by  some  perverse  law  of  her  nature,  she  showed 
a  deep  affection  for  the  infant  son  of  her  neighbour,  naming 
him  Mark  after  her  father,  and  making  plans  for  his  education 
and  future.  In  1857  Russell  Cheney  and  his  wife  went  West 
to  live,  taking  George  Glover  with  them.  George  was  now 
thirteen.  He  was  excited  at  the  prospect  of  the  trip,  and 
after  bidding  his  mother  good-bye,  he  was  taken  to  Tilton  a 
day  before  the  time  set  for  their  departure,  to  say  farewell 
to  his  Grandfather  Baker  and  his  Aunt  Tilton. 

In  Retrospection  and  Introspection  Mrs.  Eddy  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  her  separation  from  her  son : 

After  returning  to  the  paternal  roof,  I  lost  all  my  husband's  property, 
except  what  money  I  had  brought  with  me;  and  remained  with  my  parents 
until  after  my  mother's  decease. 

A  few  months  before  my  father's  second  marriage  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Patterson  Duncan,  sister  of  Lieutenant-Governor  George  W.  Patterson, 
of  New  York — my  little  son,  about  four  years  of  age,  was  sent  away 
from  me,  and  put  under  the  care  of  our  family  nurse,  who  had  married, 
and  resided  in  the  northern  part  of  New  Hampshire.  I  had  no  training 
for  self-supjjort,  and  my  home  I  regarded  as  very  precious.  The  night 
before  my  child  was  taken  from  me,  I  knelt  by  his  side  throughout  the 
dark  hours,  hoping  for  a  vision  of  relief  from  this  trial.    The   following 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  37 

lines   are  taken    from   my   poem,   "Mother's   Darling,"   written   after  this 
separation : 

"  Thy  smile  through  tears,  as  sunshine  o'er  the  sea, 
Awoke  new  beauty  in  the  surge's  roll! 
Oh,  life  is  dead,  bereft  of  all,  with  thee, — 
Star  of  my  earthly  hope,  babe  of  my  soul." 

My  dominant  thought  in  marrying  again  was  to  get  back  my  child, 
but  after  our  marriage  his  stepfather  was  not  willing  he  should  have  a 
home  with  me.  A  plot  was  consummated  for  keeping  us  apart.  The 
family  to  whose  care  he  was  committed,  very  soon  removed  to  what  was 
then  regarded  as  the  Far  West. 

After  his  removal  a  letter  was  read  to  my  little  son  informing  him 
that  his  mother  was  dead  and  buried.  Without  my  knowledge  he  was 
appointed  a  guardian,  and  I  was  then  informed  that  my  son  was  lost. 
Every  means  within  my  power  was  employed  to  find  him,  but  without 
success.  We  never  met  again  until  he  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty- four, 
had  a  wife  and  two  children,  and  by  a  strange  providence  had  learned 
that  his  mother  still  lived,  and  came  to  see  me  in  Massachusetts. 

From  Enterprise,  Minn.,  where  the  Cheneys  settled,  Mrs. 
Patterson  often  had  news  of  her  son.  Mrs.  Cheney  and  her 
husband  wrote  frequently  to  their  relatives  and  friends  in  North 
Groton  and  Tilton,  giving  details  of  their  life  and  of  George's 
progress.  Mr.  Cyrus  Blood  of  North  Groton,  one  of  George 
Glover's  early  chums,  remembers  a  visit  he  paid  to  Dr.  Patter- 
son, during  which  Mrs.  Patterson  read  a  letter  from  George, 
in  which  he  told  her  of  leaving  the  Cheneys  and  enlisting  in 
the  Civil  War.  This  was  in  1861  when  George  was  seventeen. 
"  She  seemed  as  well  pleased,  and  as  proud,"  writes  Mr.  Blood, 
"  as  any  mother  with  a  boy  in  the  army."  The  present  writer 
has  also  read  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Patterson  to  P.  P.  Quimby  of 
Portland,  Me.,  dated  July  29,  1865,  in  which  she  describes 
her  son  as  "  mortally  ill  at  Enterprise,  Minn.,"  and  declares 
that  unless  he  is  better  at  once  she  will  start  for  the  West 
"  on  Monday." 


88  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

George  Glover  made  an  excellent  record  as  a  soldier;  was 
wounded  at  Shiloh  and  honourably  discharged ;  was  appointed 
United  States  Marshal  of  the  Dakotas ;  knocked  about  the 
Western  states  as  a  prospector  and  miner,  and  finally  settled 
at  Lead,  S.  D.,  where  he  now  carries  on  his  mining  enterprises. 
He  has  a  wife  and  four  children,  the  eldest  of  whom  is  a 
daughter  named  Mary  Baker  Glover,  for  her  grandmother. 
Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  son  met  for  the  first  time  after  their  long 
separation,  in  1879,  Mrs.  Eddy  having  sent  a  mysterious  tele- 
gram begging  him  to  come  to  her  immediately.  She  was  then 
living  in  Lynn.  The  Glovers  live  in  a  handsome  house  in  Lead 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  built  for  her  son  in  1902.  None  of  the 
family  is  a  Christian  Scientist.  Several  years  ago  when  Glover's 
eldest  daughter  died  his  neighbours  expressed  amazement  that 
he  had  not  called  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  to  cure  her.  "  Why,  do  you 
know,"  replied  George,  "  I  never  thought  of  mother !  " 

In  March,  1860,  three  years  after  George  had  gone  West 
with  the  Cheneys,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Patterson  became  involved  in 
a  dispute  with  a  neighbour  and  moved  away,  this  time  trying 
Rumney,  the  next  village.  At  first  they  boarded  with  Mrs. 
John  Herbert,  a  widow  at  Rumney  Station,  and  later  they  lived 
by  themselves  in  a  house  belonging  to  John  Dearborn  in  Rumney 
Village,  a  mile  from  the  Station.  Mrs.  Patterson's  reputation 
had  preceded  her  and  she  was  at  once  a  topic  of  discussion. 
She  went  out  but  seldom,  and  then  propped  up  with  pillows 
in  a  carriage.  It  was  said  that  she  suffered  from  a  spinal 
disease.  From  the  Herbert  family  and  from  her  husband  she 
required  the  utmost  attention.  Dr.  Patterson  waited  upon  her 
constantly  when  he  was  at  home,  carrying  her  downstairs  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  39 

her  meals  and  back  again  to  her  room.  When  he  was  not  at 
home,  she  was  able  to  walk  about  and  attend  to  most  of  her 
wants  unassisted;  but  when  he  returned  she  relapsed  into  a 
state  of  helplessness. 

From  the  traditions  which  abound  in  these  villages  it  is 
evident  that  the  Pattersons'  marriage  was  an  unfortunate  one. 
Dr.  Patterson's  bluff  and  rather  coarse  geniality  must  greatly 
have  irritated  his  high-strung  and  self-centred  wife,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that,  on  his  part,  he  came  quickly  to  see  the  force 
of  Mark  Baker's  advice  against  the  marriage.  He  seems  to 
have  responded  faithfully  to  his  wife's  demands,  and  to  have 
endured  her  irascibility  with  patience.  It  was  probably  a 
relief  to  both  when  Dr.  Patterson  went  South,  after  the  Civil 
War  began,  in  the  hope  of  securing  more  profitable  employ- 
ment as  an  army  surgeon.  He  visited  the  early  battlefields,  and, 
straying  into  the  enemies'  lines,  was  taken  captive  and  sent 
to  a  Southern  prison.  In  his  absence  Mrs.  Patterson  showed 
that  she  was  capable  of  a  gentler  sentiment  toward  her  husband. 
During  his  confinement  in  prison  she  published  (June  20,  1862) 
the  following  poem,  the  last  stanza  of  which  is  slightly  reminis- 
cent of  certain  lines  in  Lord  Byron's  poem  to  the  more  celebrated 
patriot,  Bonnivard: 

TO  A  BIRD  FLYING  SOUTHWARD 

By  Mary  A.  Patterson 

Alas!  sweet  bird,  of  fond  ones  reft, 
Alone  in  Northern  climes  thus  left. 
To  seek  in  vain  through  airy  space 
Some    fellow-warbler's    resting    place; 
And  find  upon   the  hoarse  wind's   song — 
No  welcome  note  is  borne  along. 


40  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Then  wildly  through  the  skies  of  blue, 
To  spread  thy  wings  of  dappled  hue, 
As   if   forsooth   this    frozen   zone 
Could  yield  one  joy   for  bliss  that's  flown; 
While  sunward  as  thine  eager  flight, 
That  glance  is  fixed  on  visions  bright. 

And  grief  may  nestle  in  that  breast. 

Some  vulture   may  have  robbed  its  rest. 

But  guileless  as  thou  art,  sweet  thing. 

With  melting  melody  thou'lt  sing; 

The   vulture's   scream   your   nerves    unstrung, 

But,  birdie,  'twas  a  woman's  tongue. 

I,  too,  would  join  thy  skj^-bound  flight. 
To  orange  groves  and  mellow  light, 
And   soar   from   earth  to  loftier   doom. 
And  light  on  flowers  with  sweet  perfume. 
And  wake  a  genial,   happy  lay — 
Where  hearts  are  kind  and  earth  so  gay. 

Oh!  to  the  captive's  cell  I'd  sing 

A   song  of  hoi>e — and   freedom  bring — 

An  olive  leaf  I'd  quick  let  fall. 

And  lift  our  country's  blackened  pall; 

Then  homeward  seek  my  frigid  zone. 

More  chilling  to  the  heart  alone. 

Lone  as  a  solitary  star,'' 
Lone  as  a  vacant  sej^ulchre. 
Yet  not  alone !  my  Father's  call — 
Who   marks   the   sparrow   in  her   faU — 
Attunes  my  ear  to  joys  elate, 
The   joys    I'll   sing  at   Heaven's    gate. 
Bumney,  June  20,   1862. 


=  Byron's    "  Prisoner   of    Chillon,"   when    relating   how   the   bird   perched  and 
sang  upon  the  grating  of  his  donjon,  exclaims : 

"  I  sometimes  deem'd  that  it  might  be 
My   brother's   soul   come   down   to  me ; 
Biit    then   at    last   away   it   flew, 
And   then    'twas   mortal   well    I   knew, 
For   he   would   never   thus   have   flown, 
And   left  me   twice  so  douhly  lone, 
Lone  as  the  corse  within  its  shroud, 
Lone  as  a  solitary  cloud, — "  etc. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  41 

Left  alone,  and  once  more  penniless,  after  her  husband's  im- 
prisonment, Mrs.  Patterson  again  fell  back  upon  her  relatives. 
She  wrote  to  Mrs.  Tilton  for  assistance.  Mrs.  Tilton  went  to 
Rumney,  settled  Mrs.  Patterson's  affairs  there,  and  took  her 
back  to  Tilton. 

It  is  this  part  of  her  career  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has  sought  to 
blot  out  of  existence.  She  makes  no  reference  to  it  in  her 
autobiography,  and  in  another  place  has  said  that  no  special 
account  is  to  be  made  of  the  years  between  1844  and  1866. 
These  twenty-two  lost  years — ^between  her  twenty-third  and 
forty-sixth  birthdays — were,  as  has  been  shown,  spent  in  fretful 
ill-health  and  discontent.  It  was  a  hard  life,  sordid  in  many  of 
its  experiences,  petty  in  its  details,  and  narrow  in  its  limitations. 
Yet  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Mrs.  Eddy  made  an  effort 
to  improve  her  hard  situation,  or  to  make  herself  useful  to 
others ;  and  at  forty  she  was  known  only  for  her  eccentricities. 


CHAPTER  III 

MRS.    PATTERSON   FIRST   HEARS   OF   DR.    QUIMBY HER   ARRIVAL   IN 

PORTLAND QUIMBY    AND    HIS    "  SCIENCE  " 

While  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Patterson  were  living  in  Rumney,  it 
was  announced  in  the  village  that  a  new  healer,  Phineas  Park- 
hurst  Quimbj  of  Portland,  Me.,  would  visit  Concord,  N.  H., 
to  treat  all  the  sick  who  would  come  to  him.  Stories  of  the 
marvellous  cures  he  was  said  to  perform  had  spread  throughout 
New  England.  Stubborn  diseases,  which  had  resisted  the  skill 
of  regular  physicians,  were  reported  as  yielding  promptly  to 
the  magic  of  the  Quimby  method.  This  new  doctor,  so  the 
story  ran,  used  no  medicines,  and  never  failed  to  heal ;  and  upon 
hearing  these  tales  the  sick  and  the  suffering — particularly  those 
who  were  the  victims  of  long-standing  and  chronic  diseases — 
took  heart  and  tried  to  reach  him.  Among  these  was  Mrs. 
Patterson.  Her  husband  wrote  to  Dr.  Quimby  from  Rumney 
on  October  14,  1861,  that  Mrs.  Patterson  had  been  an  invalid 
from  a  spinal  disease  for  many  years.  She  had  heard  of 
Quimby's  "  wonderful  cures,"  and  desired  him  to  visit  her.  If 
Dr.  Quimby  intended  to  come  to  Concord,  as  they  had  heard, 
Dr.  Patterson  would  "  carry  "  his  wife  to  see  him.  If  not, 
he  would  try  to  get  her  to  Portland. 

Dr.  Quimby  did  not  visit  Concord,  and  Dr.  Patterson 
soon  went  South,  but  in  the  following  spring  (May  9,  1862) 
Mrs.  Patterson  herself  wrote  to  Quimby  from  Rumney,  appeal- 

43 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  43 

ing  to  him  to  help  her,  and  setting  forth  her  truly  pathetic 
situation.  She  had  been  better,  the  letter  said,  but  the  shock 
of  hearing  that  her  husband  had  "  been  captured  by  the 
Southrons  "  and  again  prostrated  her.  She  had,  she  wrote, 
"  full  confidence "  in  Dr.  Quimby's  "  philosophy,  as  explained 
in  your  circular,"  and  she  begged  him  to  come  to  Rumney. 
She  had  been  ill  for  six  years,  she  said,  and  "  only  you  can 
save  me."  Hard  as  the  journey  to  Portland  would  be,  she 
thought  she  was  sufficiently  "  excitable,"  even  in  her  feeble 
condition,  to  undertake  it.^ 

Although  Quimby  could  not  go  to  Rumney  as  she  requested, 
Mrs.  Patterson  clung  to  the  idea  of  seeing  him.  After  she 
had  returned  to  her  sister's  home  in  Tilton,  she  talked  of 
Quimby  constantly,  and  begged  Mrs.  Tilton  to  send  her  to 
Portland  for  treatment.  But  Mrs.  Tilton  would  not  consent, 
nor  provide  money  for  the  trip,  as  she  considered  Dr.  Quimby 
a  quack  and  thought  the  reports  of  his  cures  were  greatly  ex- 
aggerated. Instead,  she  sent  Mrs.  Patterson  to  a  water  cure — • 
Dr.  Vail's  Hydropathic  Institute  at  Hill,  N.  H.  At  the  Hill 
institution  Dr.  Quimby  was  just  then  a  topic  of  eager  interest 
among  the  patients,  and  Mrs.  Patterson  finally  resolved  to  reach 
Portland.  She  wrote  again  to  Dr.  Quimby  from  Hill,  telling 
him  that  although  she  had  been  at  Dr.  Vail's  cure  for  several 
months,  she  had  not  been  benefited  and  would  die  unless  he, 
Quimby,  could  help  her.  "  I  can  sit  up  but  a  few  minutes 
at  a  time,"  she  wrote.  "  Do  you  think  I  can  reach  you  without 
sinking  from  the  effects  of  the  journey.''  " 

Mrs.  Patterson  knew  that  it  was  useless  to  appeal  again  to 

^This    letter,    with    others    from    Mrs.    Patterson    to    Dr.    Quimby,    is    in    the 
possession  of  Quimby's  son,  George  A.  Quimby  of  Belfast,  Me. 


44  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

her  sister,  and  as  there  was  no  one  else,  she  used  her  wits. 
From  time  to  time  she  apphed  to  Mrs.  Tilton  for  small  sums 
of  money  for  extra  expenses.  By  hoarding  these  she  soon  had 
enough  to  pay  her  fare  to  Portland,  and  she,  therefore,  set  out. 

Mrs.  Patterson  arrived  at  the  International  H[otel  in  October, 
1862,  and  with  scores  of  others,  who  went  flocking  to  Quimby, 
she  was  helped  up  the  stairs  to  his  office. 

Dr.  Quimby  now  becomes  such  a  potent  influence  in  Mrs. 
Patterson's  life  that  some  understanding  of  the  man  and  his 
theories  is  necessary  for  any  complete  comprehension  of  her 
subsequent  career. 

Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby  was  "  Doctor  "  only  by  courtesy : 
he  had  taken  no  university  degree  and  had  studied  in  no  regular 
school  of  medicine.  He  was  regarded  by  the  educated  public 
as  an  amiable  humbug  or  a  fanatic,  but  by  hundreds  of  his 
patients  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  worker  of  miracles.  His 
methods  resembled  those  of  no  regular  physician  then  in  practice, 
nor  did  he  imitate  the  spiritualistic  and  clairvoyant  healers 
who  at  that  time  flourished  in  New  England.  He  gave  no 
drugs,  went  into  no  trances,  used  no  incantations,  and  did 
not  heal  by  mesmerism  after  he  had  discovered  his  "  science." 
He  professed  to  make  his  patients  well  and  happy  purely  by 
the  benevolent  power  of  mind. 

Fantastic  as  this  idea  then  seemed,  Quimby  was  no  ordinary 
quack.  He  did  not  practise  on  the  credulous  for  money,  and 
his  theories  represented  at  least  independent  thought  and  pa'^ 
tient,  life-long  study.  He  was  born  in  New  Lebanon,  N.  H., 
February  16,  1802,  but  spent  the  larger  part  of  his  life  in 
Belfast,  Me.     He  was  one  of  seven  children,  and  his  father  was 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  45 

a  poor,  liardworldng  blacksmith.  Quimby,  therefore,  had  prac- 
tically no  educational  advantages;  indeed,  he  spent  actually 
only  six  weeks  in  school.  Apprenticed  as  a  boy  to  a  clock- 
maker,  he  became  an  adept  at  his  trade.  The  Quimby  clock 
is  still  a  domestic  institution  in  New  England;  hundreds  made 
by  Quimby's  own  hands  are  still  keeping  excellent  time.  Quimby 
had  an  ingenious  mind  and  a  natural  aptitude  for  mechanics. 
He  invented,  among  other  things,  a  band-saw  much  like  one  in 
use  at  the  present  time,  and  he  was  one  of  the  first  makers  of 
daguerreotypes.  From  the  first  he  disclosed  one  rare 'mental 
quality:  his  keen  power  of  observation  and  originality  of 
thought  forbade  his  taking  anything  for  granted.  He  recog- 
nised no  such  thing  as  accepted  knowledge.  He  developed  into 
a  mild-mannered  New  England  Socrates,  constantly  looking 
into  his  own  mind,  and  subjecting  to  proof  all  the  commonplace 
beliefs  of  his  friends.  He  read  deeply  in  philosophy  and 
science,  and  loved  nothing  better  than  to  discuss  these  subjects 
at  length. 

In  those  days  a  man  of  Quimby's  intellectual  type  did  not 
lack  subjects  of  interest.  In  the  '30's  the  first  wave  of  mental 
science,  animal  magnetism,  and  clairvoyance  swept  over  New 
England.  The  atmosphere  was  charged  with  the  occult,  the 
movement  ranging  all  the  way  from  phrenology  and  mind- 
reading  to  German  transcendentalism.  Quimby's  interest  was 
directly  stimulated  by  the  visit  of  Charles  Poyen,  the  well- 
known  French  mesmerist,  who  came  to  lecture  in  Belfast.  The 
inquiring  clock-maker  became  absorbed  in  Poyen's  theories, 
formed  his  acquaintance,  and  followed  him  from  town  to  town. 
Inevitably,  Quimby  began  experimenting  in  the  subject  which 


46  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

so  Interested  him.  Discovering  that  he  had  mesmeric  power, 
he  exercised  it  upon  many  of  his  friends  and  easily  repeated 
the  performance  of  Poyen  and  other  exhibitors.  From  becom- 
ing their  imitator  he  became  their  rival,  and  abandoning  his 
workshop,  started  out  as  a  professional  mesmerist.  Among  the 
wonder-workers  of  the  early  '40's,  "  Park  "  Quimby,  as  he  was 
popularly  called,  became  pre-eminent.  Always  considered  an 
original  character  in  his  native  village,  he  was  now  regarded  as 
an  outright  crank,  and  was  the  subject  of  much  amiable  jocu- 
larity. 

In  the  course  of  his  experiments,  Quimby  discovered  that  his 
most  sensitive  subject  was  Lucius  Burkmar,  a  boy  about  seven- 
teen years  old,  over  whom  he  had  acquired  almost  unlimited 
hypnotic  control.  The  two  travelled  all  over  New  England, 
performing  mesmerics  feats  that  have  hardly  been  duplicated 
since,  everywhere  arousing  great  popular  interest,  and,  in  certain 
quarters,  great  hostility.  Psychic  phenomena  were  then  incom- 
pletely understood ;  clergymen  preached  against  mesmerism, 
or  animal  magnetism,  as  the  work  of  the  dcAal, — a  revival  of 
ancient  witchcraft ;  while  the  practical  man  regarded  It  as 
pure  fraud.  The  newspapers  frequently  vilified  Quimby  and 
Burkmar,  and  they  were  more  than  once  threatened  by  mobs. 

Then,  as  now,  the  public  mind  associated  the  occult  sciences 
with  the  cure  of  physical  disease.  Clairvoyants,  magnetlsers, 
and  mind-readers  treated  all  Imaginable  Ills.  Wlien  blind- 
folded, they  had  the  power — according  to  their  advertisements 
— of  looking  Into  the  bodies  of  their  patients,  examining  their 
inmost  organs,  Indicating  the  affected  parts,  and  prescribing 
remedies.     Hundreds  of  men,  women,  and  children,  whose  cases 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  47 

"  the  doctors  had  given  up  as  hopeless,"  fervently  testified  to 
their  power.  Thus  Quimby  and  Burkmar  inevitably  received 
numerous  appeals  from  the  sick.  After  a  few  trials,  Quimby 
became  convinced  that  in  a  mesmeric  state  Burkmar  could 
diagnose  and  treat  disease.  Though  absolutely  ignorant  of 
medicine  and  anatomy,  Burkmar  described  minutely  the  ailments 
of  numerous  patients,  and  prescribed  medicines,  which,  although 
absurd  to  a  physician,  apparently  produced  favourable  results. 
For  three  or  four  years  Quimby  and  Burkmar  practised  with 
considerable  success.  Consumptives,  according  to  popular  re- 
port, began  to  get  well,  the  blind  saw,  and  the  halt  walked. 

Quimby  then  made  an  important  discovery.  After  careful 
observation,  he  concluded  that  neither  Burkmar  nor  his  remedies, 
in  themselves,  had  the  slightest  power.  Burkmar,  he  believed, 
did  not  himself  diagnose  the  case.  He  merely  reported  what 
the  patient,  or  some  one  else  present  in  the  room,  imagined  the 
disease  to  be.  He  had,  Quimby  thought,  a  clairvoyant  or  mind- 
reading  faculty,  by  which  he  simply  reproduced  the  opinion 
which  the  sick  had  themselves  formed.  Quimby  also  discovered 
that,  in  instances  where  improvement  actually  took  place,  the 
drug  prescribed  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Once  Burkmar,  in 
the  mesmeric  state,  ordered  a  concoction  too  expensive  for  the 
patient's  purse.  Quimby  mesmerised  him  again ;  and  this  time 
he  prescribed  a  cheaper  remedy — which  served  the  purpose 
quite  as  well.  After  a  few  experiences  of  this  kind,  Quimby 
concluded  that  Burkmar's  prescriptions  did  not  produce  the 
cures,  but  that  the  patients  cured  themselves.  Burkmar's  only 
service  was  that  he  implanted  in  the  sick  man's  mind  an  un- 
shakable faith  that  he  would  get  well.     Any  other  person,  or 


48  LIP^E  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

any  drug,  Quimby  declared,  which  could  put  the  patient  in 
this  attitude  of  mental  receptivity  and  give  his  own  mind  a 
chance  to  work  upon  the  disease,  would  accomplish  the  same 
result.  He  made  this  discovery  the  basis  of  an  elaborate  and 
original  system  of  mind  cure;  he  dropped  mesmerism,  dis- 
missed Burkmar,  and  began  to  work  out  his  theory.  He  ex- 
perimented for  several  years  In  Belfast,  and,  in  1859,  opened 
an  office  in  Portland. 

Quimby  had  the  necessary  mental  and  moral  qualifications 
for  his  work.  His  personality  Inspired  love  and  confidence, 
and  his  patients  even  now  affectionately  recall  his  kind-hearted- 
ness, his  benevolence,  and  his  keen  perception.  Even  his  oppo- 
nents In  the  controversy  which  has  raged  over  his  work  and  that 
of  Mrs.  Eddy,  speak  well  of  him.  "  On  his  rare  humanity  and 
sympathy,"  says  Mrs,  Eddy,  "  one  could  write  a  sonnet." 

He  was  a  small  man,  both  in  stature  and  In  build,  quick, 
sensitive,  and  nervous  In  his  movements.  His  large,  well- 
formed  head  stood  straight  on  erect,  energetic  shoulders.  He 
had  a  high,  broad  forehead,  and  silken  white  hair  and  beard. 
His  eyes,  arched  with  heavy  brows,  black,  deep-set,  and  pene- 
trating, seemed,  as  one  of  his  patients  has  written,  "  to  see  all 
through  the  falsities  of  life  and  far  into  the  depths  and  into 
the  spirit  of  things."  At  times  his  eyes  flashed  with  good- 
nature and  wit,  for  Quimby  by  no  means  lacked  the  jovial 
virtues.  If  his  countenance  suggested  one  quality  more  than 
another,  It  was  honesty ;  whatever  the  public  thought  of  his 
ideas,  no  one  who  ever  saw  him  face  to  face  doubted  the  man's 
absolute  sincerity.  He  demanded  the  same  sympathy  which 
he  himself  gave.     He  dealt  kindly  with  honest  doubters,  but 


Courteiy  of  Geor>.'e  A.  Ouiniby 

PHINEAS  PARKHURST  QUIMBY 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  49 

would  have  notliing  to  do  with  the  scornfuh  Unless  one  really 
wished  to  be  cured,  he  said,  his  methods  had  no  virtue.  On 
one  occasion,  instead  of  taking  his  place  beside  a  certain  patient, 
he  turned  his  chair  directly  around  and  sat  back  to  back. 
"  That's  the  way  you  feel  toward  me,"  he  declared.  His  offices 
were  constantly  filled  with  patients,  and  his  mail  was  enormous. 
People  came  to  consult  him  from  all  over  New  England  and 
the  Far  West.  He  treated  "  absently  "  thousands  who  could 
not  visit  him  in  person. 

Mrs.  Julius  A.  Dresser,  one  of  his  early  patients  and  con- 
verts, thus  describes  her  first  meeting  with  Mr.  Quimby: 

I  found  a  kindly  gentleman  who  met  me  with  such  sympathy  and 
gentleness  that  I  immediately  felt  at  ease.  He  seemed  to  know  at  once 
the  attitude  of  mind  of  those  who  applied  to  him  for  help,  and  adapted 
himself  to  them  accordingly.  His  years  of  study  of  the  human  mind,  of 
sickness  in  all  its  forms,  and  of  the  prevailing  religious  beliefs,  gave  him 
the  ability  to  see  through  the  opinions,  doubts,  and  fears  of  those  who 
sought  his  aid,  and  put  him  in  instant  sympathy  with  their  mental 
attitudes.  He  seemed  to  know  that  I  had  come  to  him  feeling  that  he  was 
a  last  resort,  and  with  little  faith  in  him  and  his  mode  of  treatment. 
But,  instead  of  telling  me  that  I  was  not  sick,  he  sat  beside  me  and 
explained  to  me  what  my  sickness  was,  how  I  got  into  the  condition,  and 
the  way  I  could  have  been  taken  out  of  it  through  the  right  understanding. 
He  seemed  to  see  through  the  situation  from  the  beginning,  and  explained 
the  cause  and  eifect  so  clearly  that  I  could  see  a  little  of  what  he  meant. 
My  case  was  so  serious,  however,  that  he  did  not  at  first  tell  me  I  could 
be  made  well.  But  there  was  such  an  effect  produced  by  his  explanation, 
that  I  felt  a  new  hojie  within  me,  and  began  to  get  well  from  that  day. 

He  continued  to  explain  my  case  from  day  to  day,  giving  me  some 
idea  of  his  theory  and  its  relation  to  what  I  had  been  taught  to  believe, 
and  sometimes  sat  silently  with  me  for  a  short  time.  I  did  not  understand 
much  that  he  said,  but  I  felt  the  spirit  and  the  life  that  came  with  his 
words;  and  I  found  myself  gaining  steadily.  Some  of  these  pithy  sayings 
of  his  remained  constantly  in  mind,  and  were  very  helpful  in  preparing 
the  way  for  a  better  understanding  of  his  thought,  such,  for  instance,  as 
his  remark  that,  "Whatever  we  believe,  that  we  create,"  or,  "Whatever 
opinion  we  put  into  a  thing,  that  we  take  out  of  it." 


50  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

In  all  the  relations  of  life,  Quimby  seems  to  have  been  loyal 
and  upright.  Outside  of  his  theory  he  lived  only  for  his  family 
and  was  the  constant  playmate  of  his  children.  His  only  inter- 
est in  his  patients  was  to  make  them  well.  He  treated  all  who 
came,  whether  they  could  pay  or  not.  For  several  years 
Quimby  kept  no  accounts  and  made  no  definite  charges.  The 
patients,  when  they  saw  fit,  sent  him  such  remuneration  as  they 
wished.  Inevitably,  he  drew  his  followers  largely  from  the 
poor  and  the  desperately  ill.  "  People,"  he  would  say,  "  send 
for  me  and  the  undertaker  at  the  same  time;  and  the  one  who 
gets  there  first  gets  the  case." 

Quimby  was  thoroughly  convinced  that  he  had  solved  the 
riddle  of  life,  and  that  ultimately  the  whole  world  would  accept 
his  ideas.  His  subject  possessed  him.  He  wearied  his  family 
almost  to  desperation  with  it,  and  wore  out  all  his  friends.  He 
discussed  it  at  length  with  any  one  who  would  listen.  To  put 
it  in  writing,  to  teach  it,  to  transmit  it  to  posterity, — that 
was  his  consuming  idea.  His  only  fear  was  lest  he  should 
die  before  the  "  Truth "  had  made  a  lasting  impress.  He 
wrote  about  it  in  the  newspapers, — not,  however,  as  extensively 
as  he  desired,  for  the  editors  seldom  printed  his  articles,  re- 
garding them  as  the  veriest  rubbish.  He  selected,  here  and 
there,  especially  appreciative  and  intelligent  patients,  discussed 
his  doctrine  with  them  exhaustively,  and  enjoined  them  to  teach 
unbelievers.  His  following  was  not  wholly  among  the  ignorant 
and  humble.  Edwin  Reed,  ex-mayor  of  Bath,  Me.,  declares 
that  Quimby  cured  him  of  total  blindness.  He  visited  him  as 
a  young  graduate  of  Bowdoin,  had  his  sight  completely  restored, 
spent   several  months  studying  the  theory,   and  left  with  the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  51 

conviction,  which  he  has  never  lost,  that  Quimby  was  a  strong 
and  original  thinker.  Julius  A.  Dresser,  whose  name  figures 
largely  in  the  history  of  mental  healing,  early  became  absorbed 
in  Quimby.  For  several  years  he  was  associated  with  him, 
receiving  patients  and  explaining,  as  a  preliminary  to  their 
meeting  with  the  doctor,  his  ideas  and  methods.  In  1863  Dr. 
Warren  F.  Evans,  a  Swedenborgian  clergyman,  visited  Quimby 
twice  professionally.  He  became  a  convert,  and,  in  several 
books  well  known  among  students  of  mental  healing,  developed 
the  Quimby  doctrine.  "  Quimby,"  he  said,  "  seemed  to  repro- 
duce the  wonders  of  Gospel  history." 

About  1859  Quimby  began  to  put  his  ideas  into  permanent 
form.  George  A.  Quimby  thus  describes  his  father's  literary 
methods : " 

Among  his  earlier  patients  in  Portland  were  the  Misses  Ware,  daughters 
of  the  late  Judge  Ashur  Ware,  of  the  United  States  Admiralty  Court; 
and  they  became  much  interested  in  "  the  Truth,"  as  he  called  it.  But 
the  ideas  were  so  new,  and  his  reasoning  was  so  divergent  from  the 
popular  conceptions,  that  they  found  it  difficult  to  follow  him  or  remember 
all  he  said;  and  they  suggested  to  him  the  propriety  of  putting  into  writing 
the  body  of  his  thoughts. 

From  that  time  he  began  to  write  out  his  ideas,  which  practice  he  con- 
tinued until  his  death,  the  articles  now  being  in  the  possession  of  the 
writer  of  this  sketch.  The  original  copy  he  would  give  to  the  Misses 
Ware;  and  it  would  be  read  to  him  by  them,  and,  if  he  suggested  any 
alteration,  it  would  be  made,  after  which  it  would  be  copied  either  by  the 
Misses  Ware  or  the  writer  of  this,  and  then  re-read  to  him,  that  he 
might  see  that  all  was  just  as  he  intended  it.  Not  even  the  most  trivial 
word  or  the  construction  of  a  sentence  would  be  changed  without  con- 
sulting him.  He  was  given  to  repetition;  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
he  could  be  induced  to  have  a  repeated  sentence  or  phrase  stricken  out, 
as  he  would  say,  "If  that  idea  is  a  good  one,  and  true,  it  will  do  no 
harm  to  have  it  in  two  or  three  times."  He  believed  in  the  hammering 
process,  and  in  throwing  an  idea  or  truth  at  the  reader  till  it  would  be 
firmly  fixed  in  his  mind. 

'  Article  in  the  New  England  Magazine,  March,  1888, 


62  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

In  six  years  Quimbj  produced  ten  volumes  of  manuscripts. 
In  them  he  discussed  a  variety  of  subjects,  all  from  the  stand- 
point of  his  theory.  He  wrote  copiously  on  Religion,  Disease, 
Spiritualism,  "  Scientific  Interpretations  of  Various  Parts  of  the 
Scriptures,"  Clairvoyance,  "  The  Process  of  Sickness,"  "  Re- 
lation of  God  to  Man,"  Music,  Science,  Error,  Truth,  Happi- 
ness, Wisdom,  "  The  Other  World,"  "  Curing  the  Sick,"  and 
dozens  of  other  topics.  He  gave  all  his  patients  access  to 
these  manuscripts,  and  permitted  all  who  wished  to  make  copies, 
overjoyed  whenever  he  found  one  interested  enough  to  do  this. 
He  also  encouraged  his  followers  to  write,  themselves,  frequently 
correcting  their  essays  and  bringing  them  into  harmony  with 
his  own  ideas.  Quimby's  writings,  as  a  whole,  have  never  been 
published ;  but  the  present  writer  has  had  free  and  continuous 
use  of  them. 

From  these  manuscripts  can  be  deduced  a  complete  and  de- 
tailed philosophy  of  life  and  disease.  They  refute  the  asser- 
tion sometimes  made,  that  Quimby  was  a  spiritualist,  or  that 
he  made  the  slightest  claim  to  divine  revelation.  Certain  ad- 
mirers sometimes  compared  him  with  Christ ;  but  he  himself 
wrote  a  long  dissertation  called  A  Defence  Against  Making 
Myself  Equal  xiith  Christ.  He  usually  calls  his  discovery  the 
"  Science  of  Health,"  and  "  The  Science  of  Health  and  Happi- 
ness " ;  once  or  twice  he  describes  it  as  "  Christian  Science." 
Scores  of  times  he  refers  to  it  as  the  "  Science  of  Christ."  He 
also  repeatedly  calls  it  "  The  Principle,"  "  The  Truth,"  and 
"  Wisdom." 

Though  he  never  identified  his  doctrine  with  religion,  and 
never  dreamed  of  founding  an  ecclesiastical  organisation  upon 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  53 

it,  his  Impulse  at  the  bottom  was  religious.  He  believed  that 
Christ's  mission  was  largely  to  the  sick;  that  He  and  His 
apostles  performed  cures  in  a  natural  manner ;  and  that  he  had 
himself  rediscovered  tlieir  method.  Jesus  Christ,  indeed,  was 
Quimby's  great  inspiration.  He  distinguished,  however,  be- 
tween the  Principle  Christ  and  the  Man  Jesus.  This  duality, 
he  said,  manifested  itself  likewise  in  man. 

In  every  individual,  according  to  Quimby,  there  were  two 
persons.  The.  first  was  the  Truth,  Goodness,  and  Wisdom  into 
which  he  had  been  naturally  born.  In  this  condition  he  was 
the  child  of  God,  the  embodiment  of  Divine  Love  and  Divine 
Principle.  This  man  had  no  flesh,  no  bones,  and  no  blood ; 
he  did  not  breathe,  eat,  or  sleep.  He  could  never  sin,  never 
become  sick,  never  die.  He  knew  nothing  of  matter,  or  of 
the  physical  senses ;  he  was  simply  Spirit,  Wisdom,  Principle, 
Truth,  Mind,  Science.  Quimby,  above  all,  loved  to  call  him 
the  "  Scientific  Man."  This  first  person  was,  so  to  speak,  en- 
crusted in  another  man,  formed  of  matter,  sense,  and  all  the 
accumulated  "  errors  "  of  time.  This  man  had  what  Quimby 
called  "  Knowledge  " — that  is,  the  ideas  heaped  up  by  the 
human  mind.  According  to  Quimby,  this  second  man  held  the 
first,  or  truly  Scientific  man,  in  bondage.  The  bonds  consisted 
of  false  human  beliefs.  The  idea,  above  all,  which  held  him 
enthralled,  was  that  of  Disease.  The  man  of  Science  knew 
nothing  of  sickness.  The  man  of  Ignorance,  however,  con- 
sciously and  unconsciously,  had  been  impregnated  for  centuries 
with  this  belief.  His  whole  life,  from  earliest  Infancy,  was 
encompassed  with  suggestions  of  this  kind.  Parents  constantly 
suggest  illness  to  their  children ;  doctors  preach  It  twenty-four 


54  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

hours  a  day ;  the  clergy,  the  newspapers,  books,  ordinary  con- 
versation,— the  whole  modern  world,  thought  Quimby,  had  en- 
gaged in  a  huge  conspiracy  to  familiarise  the  human  mind 
with  this  false  concept.  This  process  had  been  going  on  for 
thousands  of  years,  until  finally  unhealthy  ideas  had  triumphed 
over  healthy ;  beliefs  had  got  the  upper  hand  of  truth ;  knowl- 
edge had  supplanted  wisdom ;  ignorance  had  taken  the  place  of 
science ;  matter  had  superseded  mind ;  Jesus  had  dethroned 
Christ. 

Quimby  regarded  his  mission  in  the  world  as  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  original  and  natural  harmony.  Though  his  philos- 
ophy embraces  the  whole  of  life,  he  used  all  his  energies  in 
eradicating  one  of  man's  many  false  "  beliefs,"  or  "  errors," — 
tiiat  of  Disease.  His  method  was  simplicity  itself.  The  med- 
ical profession  constantly  harped  on  the  idea  of  sickness; 
Quimby  constantly  harped  on  the  idea  of  health.  The  doctor 
told  the  patient  that  disease  was  inevitable,  man's  natural  in- 
heritance ;  Quimby  told  him  that  disease  was  merely  an  "  error," 
that  it  was  created,  "  not  by  God,  but  by  man,"  and  that  health 
was  the  true  and  scientific  state.  "  The  idea  that  a  beneficent 
God  had  anything  to  do  with  disease,"  said  Quimby,  "  is  super- 
stition." "  Disease,"  reads  another  of  his  manuscripts,  "  is 
false  reasoning.  True  scientific  wisdom  is  health  and  happi- 
ness. False  reasoning  is  sickness  and  death."  Again  he  says : 
"  This  is  my  theory :  to  put  man  in  possession  of  a  science  that 
will  destroy  the  ideas  of  the  sick,  and  teach  man  one  living 
profession  of  his  own  identity,  with  life  free  from  error  and 
disease.  As  man  passes  through  these  combinations,  they  differ 
one  from  another.   ...  He  is  dying  and  living  all  the  time  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  55 

error,  till  he  dies  the  death  of  all  his  opinions  and  beliefs. 
Therefore,  to  be  free  from  death  is  to  be  alive  in  truth;  for 
sin,  or  error,  is  death,  and  science,  or  wisdom,  is  eternal  life, 
and  this  is  the  Christ."  "  My  philosophy,"  he  says  at  another 
time,  "  will  make  man  free  and  independent  of  all  creeds  and 
laws  of  man,  and  subject  him  to  his  own  agreement,  he  being 
free  from  the  laws  of  sin,  sickness,  and  death." 

Quimby,  after  dismissing  Burkmar  in  1845,  never  used  mes- 
merism or  manipulated  his  patients.  Occasionally,  after  talk- 
ing for  a  time,  he  would  dip  his  hands  in  water  and  rub  the 
patient's  head.  He  always  asserted  that  this  was  not  an 
essential  part  of  the  cure.  His  ideas  were  so  startling,  he  said, 
that  the  average  mind  could  not  grasp  them,  but  required  some 
outward  indication  to  bolster  up  its  faith.  The  cure  itself, 
Quimby  always  insisted,  was  purely  mental.^ 

'As  far  back  as  1857,  a  writer  in  the  Bangor  Jeifersonian  contradicts  the 
statement  that  Quimby  cured  mesmerically.  "  He  sits  down  with  his  patient," 
the  letter  says,  "  and'  puts  liimself  en  ravport  with  him.  which  he  does  with- 
out producing  the  mesmeric  sleep.  The  mind  is  used  to  oveiTome  disease. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  danger  from  disease  when  the  mind  is  armed  against  it. 
...  He  dissipates  from  the  mind  the  idea  of  disease  and  induces  in  its 
place  an  idea  of  health.  .  .  .  The  mind  is  what  it  thinks  it  is  and.  if  It 
contends  against  the  thought  of  disease  and  creates  for  itself  an  ideal  form 
of  health,  that  form  impresses  itself  upon  the  animal  spirit  and  through  that 
upon  the  body." 


CHAPTER  IV 

MRS.    PATTERSON    BECOMES    QUIMBy's    PATIENT    AND    PUPIL, HER 

DEFENCE    OF    QUIMBY   AND    HIS    THEORY HER    GRIEF    AT    HIS 

DEATH- — SHE  ASKS  MR.   DRESSER   TO   TAKE   UP   QUIMBy's  WORK 

Upon  reaching  the  hotel  in  Portland  where  Dr.  Quimby  had 
his  offices,  Mrs.  Patterson  was  received  by  Julius  A.  Dresser 
and  introduced  to  Dr.  Quimby.  George  A.  Quimby,  Mrs.  Julius 
A.  Dresser,  and  the  Hon.  Edwin  Reed  all  remember  Mrs.  Pat- 
terson's appearance  at  this  time.  She  was  so  feeble  that  she 
had  to  be  assisted  up  the  stairs  and  into  the  waiting-room.  She 
had  lost  the  beauty  of  her  earlier  years.  Her  figure  was 
emaciated,  her  face  pale  and  worn,  and  her  eyes  were  sunken. 
After  the  fashion  of  the  time,  her  hair  hung  about  her  shoulders 
in  loose  ringlets,  and  her  shabby  dress  suggested  the  hardness 
and  poverty  of  her  life.  Yet  Mrs.  Patterson,  as  she  was  intro- 
duced to  other  patients  sitting  about  the  waiting-room,  made 
something  of  an  impression. 

"  Mrs.  Patterson  was  presented  to  Dr.  Quimby,"  says  one  of 
the  patients  who  was  present,  "  as  '  the  authoress,'  and  her  man- 
ner was  extremely  polite  and  ingratiating.  She  wore  a  poke 
bonnet  and  an  old-fashioned  dress,  but  my  impression  was  that 
her  costume  was  intended  to  be  a  little  odd,  as  in  keeping  with 
her  '  literary '  character.  She  seemed  very  weak,  and  we 
thought  she  was  a  consumptive." 

56 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  57 

Mrs.  Patterson  almost  immediately  informed  Quimby  that 
she  was  very  poor,  and  asked  his  assistance  in  getting  an  in- 
expensive boarding-place.  Quimby,  by  personal  intercession, 
obtained  a  room  for  her  at  reduced  rates  in  Chestnut  Street. 
According  to  George  A.  Quimby,  Quimby's  son  and  secretary, 
Mrs.  Patterson's  first  stay  in  Portland  lasted  about  three  weeks. 
As  far  as  her  health  was  concerned  the  visit  seemed  a  complete 
success.  Under  Quimby's  treatment  the  spinal  trouble  dis- 
appeared and  Mrs.  Patterson  left  his  office  a  well  woman.  But 
this  hardly-achieved  visit  to  Portland  meant  much  more  to  her 
than  that.  For  the  first  time  in  her  life  she  felt  an  absorbing 
interest.  Her  contact  with  Quimby  and  her  inquiry  into  his 
philosophy  seem  to  have  been  her  first  great  experience,  the 
first  powerful  stimulus  in  a  life  of  unrestraint,  disappointment, 
and  failure.  Her  girlhood  had  been  a  fruitless,  hysterical  re- 
volt against  order  and  discipline.  The  dulness  and  meagreness 
of  her  life  had  driven  her  to  strange  extravagances  in  conduct. 
Neither  of  her  marriages  had  been  happy.  Maternity  had  not 
softened  her  nor  brought  her  consolations.  Up  to  this  time 
her  masterful  will  and  great  force  of  personality  had  served 
to  no  happy  end.  Her  mind  was  turned  in  upon  itself;  she 
had  been  absorbed  in  ills  which  seem  to  have  been  largely  the 
result  of  her  own  violent  nature — lacking  any  adequate  outlet, 
and,  like  disordered  machinery,  beating  itself  to  pieces. 

Quimby's  idea  gave  her  her  opportunity,  and  the  vehemence 
with  which  she  seized  upon  it  attests  the  emptiness  and  hunger 
of  her  earlier  years.  All  during  her  stay  in  Portland  she 
haunted  the  old  man's  rooms,  asking  questions,  reading  manu- 
scripts, observing  his   treatment  of  his   patients.     Quimby  at 


58  Lll  K  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

first  took  a  decided  liking  to   her,      "  She's  a  devihsh  bright 
<r-  woman,"  he  frequently  said.     Always  dehghted  to  explain  his 
\  theories,  in  Mrs.  Patterson  he  found  a  most  appreciative  listener. 
Both  on  this  and  subsequent  visits  he  permitted  her  to  copy 
^'        certain  of  his  manuscripts.     Undoubtedly  he  saw  in  Mrs.  Pat- 
terson, in  her  capacity  as  an  "  authoress,"  a  woman  who  could 
assist  him  in  the  matter  dearest  to  his  heart, — the  popularisa- 
tion of  his  doctrines. 

Her  devotion  to  her  teacher  was  that  of  a  long-imprisoned 
nature  toward  its  deliverer.  Her  greatest  desire  seems  to  have 
been  to  teach  Quimby's  philosophy  and  to  exalt  him  in  the  eyes 
of  men.  Soon  after  her  recovery  she  wrote  the  following  letter 
to  the  Portland  Courier:  ^ 

When  our  Shakespeare  decided  that  '"  there  were  more  things  in  this 
world  than  were  dreamed  of  in  your  philosophy,"  I  cannot  say  of  a  verity 
that  he  had  a  foreknowledge  of  P.  P.  Quimby.  And  when  the  school 
Platonic  anatomised  the  soul  and  divided  it  into  halves  to  be  reunited 
by  elementary  attractions,  and  heathen  philosophers  averred  that  old  Chaos 
in  sullen  silence  brooded  o'er  the  earth  until  her  inimitable  form  was 
hatched  from  the  egg  of  night,  I  would  not  at  present  decide  whether 
the  fallacy  was  found  in  their  premises  or  conclusions,  never  having 
dated  my  existence  before  the  flood.  When  the  startled  alchemist  dis- 
covered, as  he  supposed,  an  universal  solvent,  or  the  philosopher's  stone, 
and  the  more  daring  Archimedes  invented  a  lever  wherewithal  to  pry  up 
the  universe,  I  cannot  say  that  in  either  the  principle  obtained  in  nature 
or  in  art,  or  that  it  worked  well,  having  never  tried  it.  But,  when  by  a 
falling  apple,  an  immutable  law  was  discovered,  we  gave  it  the  crown  of 
science,  which  is  incontrovertible  and  capable  of  demonstration;  hence  that 
was  wisdom  and  truth.  When  from  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  my  reason 
takes  cognizance  of  truth,  although  it  may  appear  in  quite  a  miraculous 
view,  I  must  acknowledge  that  as  science  which  is  truth  uninvestigated. 
Hence  the  following  demonstration: — 

Three  weeks  since  I  quitted  my  nurse  and  sick  room  en  route  for 
Portland.     The  belief  of  my  recovery  had  died  out  of  the  hearts  of  those 

*  Letter  by  Mrs.  M.  M.  Tatterson  (now  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy)  in  the 
Portland   Courier,  November   7,    1862. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  59 

who  were  most  anxious  for  it.  With  this  mental  and  physical  depression 
I  first  visited  P.  P.  Quimby;  and  in  less  than  one  week  from  that  time 
I  ascended  by  a  stairway  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  steps  to  the 
dome  of  the  City  Hall,  and  am  improving  ad  infinitum.  To  the  most  subtle 
reasoning,  such  a  proof,  coupled  too,  as  it  is  with  numberless  similar 
ones,  demonstrates  his  power  to  heal.  Now  for  a  brief  analysis  of  this 
power. 

Is  it  spiritualism?  Listen  to  the  words  of  wisdom.  "Believe  in  God, 
believe  also  in  me;  or  believe  me  for  the  very  work's  sake."  Now,  then, 
his  works  are  but  the  result  of  superior  wisdom,  which  can  demonstrate 
a  science  not  understood;  hence  it  were  a  doubtful  proceeding  not  to  believe 
him  for  the  work's  sake.  Well,  then,  he  denies  that  his  power  to  heal 
the  sick  is  borrowed  from  the  spirits  of  this  or  another  world;  and  let 
us  take  the  Scriptures  for  proof.  "  A  kingdom  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  How,  then,  can  he  receive  the  friendly  aid  of  the  dis- 
enthralled spirit,  while  he  rejects  the  faith  of  the  solemn  mystic  who 
crosses  the  threshold  of  the  dark  unknown  to  conjure  up  from  the  vasty 
deep   the   awestruck   spirit  of  some   invisible   squaw? 

Again,  is  it  by  animal  magnetism  that  he  heals  the  sick?  Let  us 
examine.  I  have  employed  electro-magnetism  and  animal  magnetism,  and 
for  a  brief  interval  have  felt  relief,  from  the  equilibrium  which  I  fancied 
was  restored  to  an  exhausted  system  or  by  a  diffusion  of  concentrated 
action.  But  in  no  instance  did  I  get  rid  of  a  return  of  all  my  ailments, 
because  I  had  not  been  helped  out  of  the  error  in  which  opinions  involved 
us.  My  operator  believed  in  disease,  independent  of  the  mind;  hence 
I  could  not  be  wiser  than  my  master.  But  now  I  can  see  dimly  at  first, 
and  only  as  trees  walking,  the  great  principle  which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's 
faith  and  works;  and  just  in  proportion  to  my  right  perception  of  truth 
is  my  recovery.  This  truth  which  he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving  in- 
telligence to  matter  and  placing  pain  where  it  never  placed  itself,  if 
received  understandingly,  changes  the  currents  of  the  system  to  their 
normal  action;  and  the  mechanism  of  the  body  goes  on  undisturbed.  That 
this  is  a  science  capable  of  demonstration,  becomes  clear  to  the  minds  of 
those  patients  who  reason  upon  the  process  of  their  cure.  The  truth  which 
he  establishes  in  the  patient  cures  him  (although  he  may  be  wholly  un- 
conscious thereof) ;  and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  light,  is  no  longer  in 
disease.  At  present  I  am  too  much  in  error  to  elucidate  the  truth,  and 
can  touch  only  the  keynote  for  the  master  hand  to  wake  the  harmony. 
May  it  be  in  essays,  instead  of  notes!  say  I.  After  all,  this  is  a  very 
spiritual  doctrine;  but  the  eternal  years  of  God  are  with  it,  and  it 
nmst  stand  firm  as  the  rock  of  ages.  And  to  many  a  poor  sufferer 
may  it  be  found,  as  by  me,  "the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary 
land." 


60  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Her  extravagance  brought  general  ridicule  upon  Quimby 
and  herself.  "  P.  P.  Quimby  compared  to  Jesus  Christ  ?  "  ex- 
claimed the  Portland  Advertiser,  in  commenting  on  her  letter, 
"  What  next?  "  Mrs.  Patterson  again  took  up  the  cudgels. 
She  wrote  in  the  Portland  Courier: 

Noticing  a  paragrajih  in  the  Advertiser,  commenting  upon  some  sen- 
tences of  mine  clipped  from  the  Courier,  relative  to  the  science  of  P.  P. 
Quimby,  concluding,  "What  next?"  we  would  reply  in  due  deference 
to  the  courtesy  with  which  they  define  their  position.  P.  P.  Quimby  stands 
upon  the  plane  of  wisdom  with  his  truth.  Christ  healed  the  sick,  but 
not  by  jugglery  or  with  drugs.  As  the  former  speaks  as  never  man 
before  spake,  and  heals  as  never  man  healed  since  Christ,  is  he  not 
identified  with  truth?  And  is  not  this  the  Christ  which  is  in  him?  We 
know  that  in  wisdom  is  life,  "  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  man."  P.  P. 
Quimby  rolls  away  the  stone  from  the  sepulchre  of  error,  and  health 
is  the  resurrection.  But  we  also  know  that  "  light  shineth  in  darkness  and 
the  darkness  comprehendeth  it  not." 

Mrs.  Patterson  expressed  her  admiration  of  Quimby  in  verse 
also: 

SONNET 

Suggested   by  Beading   the  Remarkable   Cure  of 
Ca'ptain  J.    W.  Deering 

To  Dr.   p.   p.   Quimby 

'Mid  light  of  science   sits  the  sage  profound, 
Awing  with  classics  and  his  starry  lore. 
Climbing   to   Venus,   chasing   Saturn   round. 
Turning  his   mystic   pages   o'er   and   o'er, 
Till,   from  empyrean  space,  his  wearied  sight 
Turns  to  the  oasis  on  which  to  gaze, 
More  bright  than  glitters  on  the  brow  of  night 
The  self-taught  man  walking  in  wisdom's  ways. 
Then   paused   the   captive    gaze   with   peace   entwined. 
And    sight    was    satisfied    with    thee    to    dwell; 
But  not  in   classics  could  the   book-worm  find 
That  law  of  excellence  whence  came  the  spell 
Potent   o'er    all, — the    captive   to   unbind. 
To  heal  the  sick  and  faint,  the  halt  and  blind. 
For  the  Courier.  ^^^"^    ^I-    Patterson. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  61 

Mrs.  Patterson  returned  in  good  health,  as  she  thought,  to 
Sanbornton  Bridge.  Quimby  became  the  great  possession  of 
her  life.  She  talked  incessantly  of  him  to  all  her  friends,  and 
sought  to  persuade  the  sick  to  visit  him.  In  1863  she  wrote 
many  times  to  Quimby.  Her  letters,  now  in  the  possession  of 
George  A.  Quimby,  describe,  in  the  most  reverential  terms,  her 
indebtedness. 

The  following  extracts  illustrate  the  tone  of  these  communi- 
cations : 

Sanbornton  Bridge,  January  12,  1863. 
.  .  .  I  am  to  all  who  see  me  a  living  wonder,  and  a  living  monument 
of  your  power.  ...  I  eat,  drink,  and  am  merry,  have  no  laws  to 
fetter  my  spirit.  Am  as  much  an  escaped  prisoner,  as  my  dear  husband 
was.  .  .  .  My  explanation  of  your  curative  principle  surprises  people, 
especially  those  whose  minds  are  all  matter.  ...  I  mean  not  again 
to  look  mournfully  into  the  past,  but  wisely  to  improve  the  present. 

In  a  letter  dated  Sanbornton  Bridge,  January  31,  1863,  she 
asks  for  "  absent  treatment."  "  Please  come  to  me  and  remove 
this  pain."  In  this  letter  she  says  that  her  sister,  Mrs.  Tilton, 
and  her  son,  Albert  Tilton,  are  going  to  visit  Mr.  Quimby. 
She  says  that  Albert  smokes  and  drinks  to  excess,  and  begs 
Quimby  to  treat  him  for  these  habits,  "  even  when  Albert  is  not 
there."  She  explains  that  she  herself  has  treated  Albert  to 
help  him  overcome  the  habit  of  smoking  and,  while  doing  so, 
felt  "  a  constant  desire  to  smoke !  "  She  asks  Quimby  to  treat 
her  for  this  desire.  In  other  letters  Mrs.  Patterson  repeatedly 
asks  for  absent  treatments,  and  occasionally  incloses  a  dollar 
to  pay  for  them. 

In  a  letter  from  Saco,  Me.,  September  14,  1863,  Mrs.  Patter- 
son says  that  Quimby's  "Angel  Visits"  (absent  treatments) 
are  helping  her.     "  I  would  like  to  have  you  in  your  omni- 


62  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

presence  visit  me  at  eight  o'clock  this  evening."  On  this  occa- 
sion she  specifies  that  she  wishes  to  be  treated  for  "  small  be- 
liefs," namely,  "  stomach  trouble,  backache,  and  constipation." 

In  the  early  part  of  1864,  Mrs.  Patterson  again  spent  two 
or  three  months  in  Portland.  She  found  congenial  companions 
in  one  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosby,  who  was  likewise  a  patient  of 
Quimby's,  and  Miss  Anna  Mary  Jarvis,  who  had  brought  her 
consumptive  sister  to  Quimby  for  treatment.  Mrs.  Crosby  and 
Mrs.  Patterson  became  warm  friends.  They  occupied  adjoin- 
ing rooms  in  the  same  boarding-house  and  spent  much  time 
together.  Mrs.  Patterson  told  Mrs.  Crosby  that  she  intended 
to  assist  Quimby  in  his  work.  The  latter,  says  Mrs.  Crosby, 
frequently  expressed  his  pleasure  at  Mrs.  Patterson's  enthu- 
siasm. "  He  told  me  many  times,"  she  adds,  "  that  I  was  not 
so  quick  to  perceive  the  Truth  as  Mrs.  Patterson."  Quimby 
now  gave  Mrs.  Patterson  much  of  his  time.  He  was  practising 
then  mainly  in  the  morning,  and  allowed  Mrs.  Patterson  to 
spend  nearly  every  afternoon  at  his  office.  "  She  would  work 
with  Dr.  Quimby  all  afternoon,"  says  Mrs.  Crosby,  "  and  then 
she  would  come  home  and  sit  up  late  at  night  writing  down 
what  she  had  learned  during  the  day." 

This  second  visit  to  Quimby  seems  to  have  been  even  more 
stimulating  to  Mrs.  Patterson  than  the  first.  She  gave  all  her 
time  and  strength  to  the  study  of  this  esoteric  theory.  It  was 
during  this  visit  that  she  first  manifested  a  desire  to  become 
herself  an  active  force  in  the  teaching  and  practising  of  this 
"  Science."  The  desire  became  actually  a  purpose,  perhaps  an 
ambition — the  only  definite  one  she  had  ever  known.  She  was 
groping  for  a  vocation.     She  must  even  then  have  seen  before 


Tintype  by  Prebie 

MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

From  a  tintype   given  to  Mrs.  Sarah  G.  Crosby  in   1864.     Mrs.  Eddy  was  then 

Mrs.  Patterson 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  63 

her  new  possibilities ;  an  opportunity  for  personal  growth  and 
personal  achievement  very  different  from  the  petty  occupations 
of  her  old  life.  In  one  of  her  letters  to  Quimby,  written  some 
months  after  she  left  Portland,  there  is  this  new  note  of  aspira- 
tion and  resolve: 

Who  is  wise  but  you?  .  .  .  Doctor,  I  have  a  strong  feeling  of  late 
that  I  ought  to  be  perfect  after  the  command  of  science.  ...  I  can 
love  only  a  good,  honourable,  and  brave  career;  no  other  can  suit  me. 

Upon  leaving  Portland,  after  this  second  visit,  Mrs.  Patter- 
son went  to  Warren,  Me.,  to  visit  Miss  Jarvis.  Here  she 
seems  to  have  tried  Quimby's  treatment  upon  Miss  Jarvis, 
putting  into  practice  what  she  had  learned  from  Quimby  him- 
self during  the  last  three  months.  "  At  the  mere  mention  of 
my  going,"  writes  Mrs.  Patterson,  "  Miss  Jarvis  has  a  relapse 
and  is  in  despair." 

She  confidently  believes  that  she  has  benefited  the  sick  woman. 
Once,  after  receiving  an  "  absent  treatment  "  from  Quimby, 
she  successfully  transmitted  its  blessings  to  Miss  Jarvis.  She 
became  so  "  cheerful  and  uplifted  "  that  Miss  Jarvis  "  was  gay 
and  not  at  all  sad."  She  also  writes  that  she  has  been  asked 
to  take  outside  cases  at  Warren,  but  that  she  feels  herself  not 
yet  ready,  being  still  in  her  "  pupilage." 

In  a  letter  from  Warren,  March  31,  1864,  she  says: 

I  wish  you  would  come  to  my  aid  and  help  me  to  sleep.  Dear  Doctor 
what  could  I  do  without  you? 

In  a  letter  dated  Warren,  April  5,  1864: 

I  met  the  former  editor  of  the  Banner  of  Light,  and  he  heard  for  once 
the  truth  about  you.  He  thought  you  a  defunct  Spiritualist,  before  I 
quitted  him  at  Brunswick,  he  had  endorsed  your  science  and  acknowledged 
himself  as  greatly  interested  in  it. 


64  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

In   another   letter    from   Warren,   under   date  of  April   24, 

1864,  she  says : 

Jesus  taught  as  man  does  not,  who  then  is  wise  but  you?  Posted  at  the 
public  marts  of  this  city  is  this  notice,  Mrs.  M.  M.  Patterson  will  lecture 
at  the  Town  Hall  on  P.  P.  Quimby's  Spiritual  Science  healing  disease, 
as  opposed  to  Deism  or  Rochester  Rapping  Spiritualism. 

In  a  letter  dated  Warren,  May,  1864,  she  writes  that  she 
has  been  ill,  but, 

I  am  up  and  about  to-day,  i.e.,  by  the  help  of  the  Lord   (Quimby). 

Again, 

Dear  doctor,  what  could  I  do  without  you?  ...  I  will  not  bow  to 
wealth  for  I  cannot  honour  it  as  I  do  wisdom.  .  .  .  May  the  peace 
of  wisdom  which  passeth  all  understanding  be  and  abide  with  you. — Ever 
the  same  in  gratitude. 

In  one  letter  she  describes  the  sudden  appearance  of  Quimby's 
wraith  in  her  room.  She  spoke  to  it,  she  adds,  "  and  then  you 
turned  and  walked  away."  "  That,"  she  says,  "  I  call  dodging 
the  issue."  She  repeatedly  calls  his  treatment  his  "  Science  " ; 
her  illnesses,  her  "  beliefs  "  or  "  errors  " ;  and  her  recoveries, 
her  "  restorations." 

In  May,  1864,  Mrs.  Patterson  left  Miss  Jarvis  and  went 
to  visit  another  friend,  her  fellow-patient,  INIrs.  Sarah  G. 
Crosby,  at  Albion,  Me.  Mrs.  Crosby,"  who  is  now  living  at 
Watervillc,  jNIe.,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  this  visit,  which 
lasted  several  months.  Mrs.  Patterson,  she  says,  although  in 
a  state  of  almost   absolute  destitution,   retained  the  air  of  a 


^  Mrs.  Crosby  Is  well  and  creditably  known  in  Maine.  When  she  was  a 
woman  of  forty  and  the  mother  of  five  children,  financial  reverses  came  to 
her  family.  She  learned  stenosrapby  at  nifrht  without  a  teacher  and  became 
a  court  stenosraphor  at  a  time  when  it  was  most  unusual  for  a  woman  to 
hold  such  a  position.  For  fifteen  years  she  was  stenographer  in  the  highest 
courts  of  Maine,  duiini;  which  time  she  paid  off  her  husband's  debts,  andi 
reared  and  educated  her  children. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  65 

grand  lady  wliich  had  so  characterised  her  in  her  youth. 
Although  visiting  at  a  farmhouse  where  every  one  had  a  part 
in  the  household  duties,  Mrs.  Patterson  was  always  the  guest 
of  honour,  nor  did  it  occur  to  any  one  to  suggest  her  sharing 
the  daily  routine.  Mrs.  Crosby's  servants  waited  upon  the 
guest,  and  even  her  room  was  cared  for  by  others.  Mrs.  Patter- 
son talked  incessantly  of  Quimby,  and  often  urged  Mrs.  Crosby 
to  leave  her  home  and  go  out  into  the  world  with  her  to  teach 
Quimby's  "  Science."  Mrs.  Crosby  admits  that  she  was  com- 
pletely under  Mrs.  Patterson's  spell,  and  says  that  even  after 
years  of  estrangement  and  complete  disillusionment,  she  still 
feels  that  Mrs.  Patterson  was  the  most  stimulating  and  in- 
vigorating influence  she  has  ever  known.  Like  all  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  old  intimates,  she  speaks  of  their  days  of  companionship 
with  a  certain  shade  of  regret — as  if  life  in  the  society  of  this 
woman  was  more  intense  and  keen  than  it  ever  was  afterward. 

IMrs.  Crosby  says  that,  during  this  visit,  both  she  and  Mrs. 
Patterson  became  somewhat  interested  in  spiritualism  through 
communications  from  Mrs.  Patterson's  dead  brother.  Mrs. 
Crosby  is  authority  for  the  following  account :  ^ 

Mr.  Crosby's  farm  was  rather  isolated,  and  the  two  women 
found  relief  from  the  tedium  of  country  life  in  spirit  communi- 
cations from  Mrs.  Patterson's  dead  brother,  Albert  Baker. 
Mrs.  Patterson  had  been  much  attached  to  this  brother,  and 
described  his  talents  and  personality  at  great  length  to  Mrs. 
Crosby,  making  such  an  attractive  picture  that  he  became  a 
very  real  person  to  the  young  woman.     Albert,  Mrs.  Patterson 

3  This  account  is  a  condensed  version  of  ^Ii's-  Crosby's  affidavit  which  takes 
np  the  historv  of  her  entire  acquaintance  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  beginning  when 
Bhe  was  a  patient  at  Quimby's  in  1S64.  This  document  is  now  io  the  writer  8 
possession. 


6Q  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

told  her,  was  Mrs.  Crosby's  guardian  spirit ;  he  had  long  been 
trying  to  communicate  with  h^,  but  had  never  been  able  to 
do  so  until  his  sister  came  to  visit  her,  as  Mary  was  his  "  only 
earthly  medium."  Mrs.  Crosby  says  that  she  implicitly  be- 
lieved in  Albert's  care  and  guardianship  over  her,  that  she 
derived  constant  strength  and  comfort  from  it,  and  that  this 
spirit  friendship  Avas  one  of  the  most  real  she  has  ever  known. 

Albert's  first  communication  to  Mrs.  Crosby  occurred  as 
follows :  * 

One  day  Mrs.  Patterson  and  Mrs.  Crosby  sat  together  at 
opposite  sides  of  the  same  table.  Suddenly  Mrs.  Patterson 
leaned  backward,  shivered,  closed  her  eyes,  and  began  to  talk 
in  a  sepulchral,  mannish  voice.  Tlie  voice  said  that  "  he " 
was  Albert  Baker,  Mrs.  Patterson's  brother.  "  He  "  had  been 
trying,  the  voice  continued,  to  get  control  of  Mrs.  Patterson 
for  many  days.  "  He  "  wished  to  warn  Mrs.  Crosby  against 
putting  such  entire  confidence  in  Mrs.  Patterson.  "  He  in- 
formed me,"  Mrs.  Crosby  continues,  "  through  her  own  lips, 
that  while  his  sister  loved  me  as  much  as  she  was  capable  of 
loving  any  one,  life  had  been  a  severe  experiment  with  her,  and 
she  might  use  my  sacred  confidence  to  further  any  ambitious 
purposes  of  her  own." 

Mrs.  Crosby  was  naturally  amazed  at  this  injunction.     That 


*  Mrs.  Crosby  does  not  assert  or  even  imply  that  Mrs.  Eddv  was  ever,  in 
any  regular  or  professional  sense,  a  "  medium."  Mrs.  Eddv  herself  states  that 
she  has  been  able  to  perform  the  signs  and  wonders  of  spiritualism,  though 
explaining  them  by  another  cause.  In  the  second  edition  of  Scioice  and 
Health,  1878,  page  166,  she  says  :  "  We  are  aware  that  the  Spiritualists  claim 
whomsoever  they  would  catch  and  regard  even  Christ  as  an  elder  brother. 
But  we  never  were  a  Spiritualist;  and  never  were,  and  never  could  be.  and 
never  admitted  we  were  a  medium.  We  have  explained  to  the  class  calling 
themselves  Spiritualists  how  their  signs  and  wonders  were  wrought,  and  have 
Illustrated  by  doing  them  ;  but  at  the  same  time  have  said.  This  is  not  the 
work  of  spirits  and  I  am  not  a  medium ;  and  they  have  passed  from  our 
presence  and  said,  behold  the  proof  that  she  is  a  medium  ! 


;/'  'r  .c   iu(.-'i'<-'>->'^'  xi' 'V 


L.A-^^4   ^-4.uC  6^^^ 


Ia  'W' 


,lilt4^-^^>^*\^? 


^iZ:  u^*^   c4U.f ^' 


i.^  ,^-  ~^1^  ^*^  .^"^^^tZ^  4^-^^^ 


Facsimile  of  the  second  sheet  of  the  first  "spirit  "  letter  from  Albert  Baker, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  brother,  to  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosby 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  61 

Albert  should  select  his  own  sister  as  the  medium  through  which 
to  warn  Mrs.  Crosby  against  her,  seemed  remarkable.  Again, 
if  Mrs.  Patterson  consciously  shammed,  Mrs.  Crosby  could  not 
understand  why  she  should  deliver  a  message  so  uncompli- 
mentary to  herself — unless,  indeed,  to  make  the  message  seem 
more  genuine.  Several  times,  in  the  course  of  this  visit,  Mrs. 
Patterson  went  into  trances.  In  one  of  these,  Albert  Baker's 
spirit  told  Mrs.  Crosby  that  if,  from  time  to  time,  she  would 
look  under  the  cushion  of  a  particular  chair,  she  would  find 
important  written  communications  from  him.  Mrs.  Crosby, 
following  the  injunction,  discovered  now  and  then  a  letter. 
One  of  these  is  interesting  chiefly  as  containing  Albert  Baker's 
spiritistic  endorsement  of  P.  P.  Quimby.     The  text  is  as  follows : 

Sarah  dear  Be  ye  calm  in  reliance  on  self,  amid  all  the  changes  of 
natural  yearnings,  of  too  keen  a  sense  of  earth  joys,  of  too  great  a 
struggle  between  the  material  and  spiritual.  Be  calm  or  you  will  rend 
your  mortal  and  your  experience  which  is  needed  for  your  spiritual 
progress  lost,  till  taken  up  without  the  proper  sphere  and  your  spirit 
trials  more  severe. 

This  is  why  all  things  are  working  for  good  to  those  who  suifer  and 
they  must  look  not  upon  the  things  which  are  seen  but  upon  those  which 
do  not  appear.  P.  Quimby  of  Portland  has  the  spiritual  truth  of  diseases. 
You  must  imbibe  it  to  be  healed.  Go  to  him  again  and  lean  on  no 
material  or  spiritual  medium.  In  that  path  of  truth  I  first  found  you. 
Dear  one,  I  am  at  present  no  aid  to  you  although  you  think  I  am,  but  your 
spirit  will  not  at  present  bear  this  quickening  or  twill  leave  the  body; 
hence  I  leave  you  till  you  ripen  into  a  condition  to  meet  me.  You  will 
miss  me  at  first,  but  afterwards  grow  more  tranquil  because  of  it,  which 
is  important  that  you  may  live  for  yourself  and  children.  Love  and 
care  for  poor  sister  a  great  sufi'ering  lies  before  her. 

After  leaving  Albion,  Mrs.  Patterson  continued  to  receive 
messages  from  Albert.  On  one  occasion  Mrs.  Patterson  sent 
Mrs.   Crosby  the  following  communication  from  her  brother: 


68  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Child  of  earth !  heir  to  immortality !  love  hath  made  intercession  with 
wisdom  for  you — your  request  is  answered. 

Let  not  the  letter  leave  your  hand — nor  destroy  it. 

Love  each  other,  your  spirits  are  aflSned.  My  dear  Sarah  is  innocent, 
and  will  rejoice  for  every  tear. 

The  gates  of  paradise  are  opening  at  the  tread  of  time;  glory  and  the 
crown  shall  shall  be  the  diadem  of  your  earthly  pilgrimage  if  you  patiently 
persevere  in  virtue,  justice,  and  love.  You  twain  are  my  care.  I  speak 
through  no  other  earthly  medium  but  you. 

Mr.  Quimby  died  January  16,  1866-  As  in  the  case  of  many 
mental  healers,  his  own  experience  apparently  belied  his  doc- 
trines. He  had  for  years  suffered  from  an  abdominal  tumour. 
He  had  never  had  it  treated  medically,  but  asserted  that  he 
had  always  been  able,  mentally,  to  prevent  it  from  getting  the 
upper  hand.  The  last  few  years  of  his  life  he  worked  inces- 
santly. His  practice  increased  enormously,  and  at  last  broke 
him  down.  In  the  summer  of  1865  he  was  compelled  to  stop 
work.  He  closed  his  Portland  office  and  went  home  to  Belfast 
to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  to  revising  his  manuscripts  and 
preparing  them  for  publication.  His  physical  condition,  how- 
ever, prevented  this ;  he  became  feebler  every  day.  He  now 
acknowledged  his  inability  to  cure  himself.  As  long  as  he  had 
his  usual  mental  strength,  he  said,  he  could  stop  the  disease; 
but,  as  he  felt  this  slipping  from  him,  his  "  error  "  rapidly  made 
inroads.  Finally,  Quimby 's  Avife,  with  his  acquiescence,  sum- 
moned a  homoeopathic  physician.  Quimby  consented  to  this, 
he  said,  not  because  he  had  the  slightest  idea  that  the  doctor 
could  help  him,  but  merely  to  comfort  his  family.  His  wife 
had  never  accepted  the  "  theory  " ;  his  children,  for  the  most 
part,  had  no  enthusiasm  for  it.  They  all,  however,  loved  the 
old  man  dearly  and  could  not  patiently  witness  his  suffering 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  69 

without  seeking  all  means  to  allay  it.  Quimby  followed  im- 
plicitly all  the  doctor's  instructions.  His  son,  George  A. 
Quimby,  says :  ^ 

An  hour  before  he  breathed  his  last,  he  said  to  the  writer:  "I  am  more 
than  ever  convinced  of  the  truth  of  my  theory.  I  am  perfectly  willing 
for  the  change  myself,  but  I  know  you  will  all  feel  badly;  but  /  know 
that  I  shall  be  right  here  with  you,  just  the  same  as  I  have  always  been. 
I  do  not  dread  the  change  any  more  than  if  I  were  going  on  a  trip  to 
Philadelphia." 

His  death  occurred  January  16,  1866,  at  his  residence  in  Belfast,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-four  years,  and  was  the  result  of  too  close  application  to  his 
profession  and  of  overwork.  A  more  fitting  epitaph  could  not  be  accorded 
him  than  in  these  words: 

"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for 
his  friends."  For,  if  ever  a  man  did  lay  down  his  life  for  others,  that 
man  was  Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby. 

Many  mourned  Quimby's  death.  No  one  felt  greater  grief 
or  expressed  it  more  emphatically  and  sincerely  than  Mary  M. 
Patterson.  She  wrote  at  once  to  Julius  Dresser,  asking  him 
to  take  up  the  master's  work.     Her  letter  follows : 

Mr.    Dresser:  Lynn,  February  14,  1866. 

Sir:  I  enclose  some  lines  of  mine  in  memory  of  our  much-loved  friend, 
which  perhaps  you  will  not  think  overwrought  in  meaning:  others  must 
of  course. 

I  am  constantly  wishing  that  you  would  step  forward  into  the  place  he 
has  vacated.  I  believe  you  would  do  a  vast  amount  of  good,  and  are 
more  capable  of  occupying  his  place  than  any  other  I  know  of. 

Two  weeks  ago  I  fell  on  the  sidewalk,  and  struck  my  back  on  the  ice, 
and  was  taken  up  for  dead,  came  to  consciousness  amid  a  storm  of  vapours 
from  cologne,  chloroform,  ether,  camphor,  etc.,  but  to  find  myself  the 
helpless  cripple  I  was  before  I  saw  Dr.  Quimby. 

The  physician  attending  said  I  had  taken  the  last  step  I  ever  should, 
but  in  two  days  I  got  out  of  my  bed  alone  and  loill  walk;  but  yet  I 
confess  I  am  frightened,  and  out  of  that  nervous  heat  my  friends  are 
forming,  spite  of  me,  the  terrible  spinal  affection  from  which  I  have 
suffered    so    long    and    hopelessly.    .     .     .    Now    can't    yov    help    me?      I 


'New  England  Magazine,  March,  1888. 


70  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

believe  you  can.  I  write  this  with  this  feeling:  I  think  that  I  could  help 
another  in  my  condition  if  they  had  not  placed  their  intelligence  in  matter. 
This  I  have  not  done,  and  yet  I  am  slowly  failing.  Won't  you  write  me 
if  you  will  undertake  for  me  if  I  can  get  to  you? 

Respectfully,        Mary  M.  Pattehsok. 

The  verses  referred  to  had  already  been  published  in  a  Lynn 
newspaper. 

Lines  on  the  Death  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,'  Who  Healed  with  the  Truth 
that  Christ  Taught  in  Contradistinction  to  All  Isms. 

Did   sackcloth   clothe  the   sun  and  day  grow  night, 
All  matter  mourn  the  hour  with  dewy  eyes, 

When  Truth,  receding   from  our  mortal  sight, 
Had  paid  to  error  her  last  sacrifice? 

Can  we  forget  the  power  that  gave  us  life? 

Shall  we   forget  the  wisdom   of  its  way? 
Then  ask  me  not  amid  this  mortal  strife — 

This  keenest  pang  of  animated  clay — 

To  mourn  him  less;  to  mourn  him  more  were  just 

If  to  his  memory  'twere  a  tribute  given 
For  every  solemn,  sacred,  earnest  trust 

Delivered  to  us  ere  he  rose  to  heaven. 

Heaven  but  the  happiness  of  that  calm  soul. 

Growing  in  stature  to  the  throne  of  God; 
Rest  should  reward  him  who  hath  made  us  whole, 
Seeking,  though  tremblers,  where  his  footsteps  trod. 

Mary   M.   Patterson". 
Lynn,   January   22,   1866. 


"  In  a  copy  of  these  verses  sent  to  Mrs.  Sarah  G.  Crosby  the  title  is  worded 
somewhat  differently  and  several  slight  variations  occur  in  the  text. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  QUIMBY  CONTROVERSY MRS.  EDDy's  CLAIM  THAT  CHRISTIAN 

SCIENCE  WAS  A  DIVINE  REVELATION  TO  HER THE  STORY  OF 

HER     FALL    ON    THE    ICE    IN    LYNN    AND    HER    MIRACULOUS 
RECOVERY 

Nine  years  after  the  death  of  Phineas  P.  Quimby,  Mrs.  Eddy 
pubhshed  a  book  entitled  Science  and  Health,  in  which  she 
developed  a  system  of  curing  disease  by  the  mind.  In  this 
work  she  mentions  Quimby  only  incidentally,  and  acknowledges 
no  indebtedness  to  him  for  the  idea  upon  which  her  system  is 
based.  Upon  this  foundation  Mrs.  Eddy  has  since  established 
the  Christian  Science  Church,  the  sect  which  regards  her  as 
the  real  discoverer  and  only  accredited  teacher  of  metaphysical 
healing.  Quimby  himself,  though  he  founded  no  religious  or- 
ganisation, to-day  has  thousands  of  followers  ;  the  several  schools 
of  Mental  Scientists  are  convinced  that  he  was  the  discoverer 
and  founder  of  mental  healing  in  this  country.  Mrs,  Eddy's 
partisans  maintain  that  she  received  her  inspiration  from  God, 
while  Quimby's  adherents  maintain  that  she  obtained  her  ideas 
very  largely  from  Quimby.  Interrupting,  for  the  present,  the 
narrative  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life,  this  chapter  will  attempt  to 
present  the  arguments  of  both  sides  in  this  controversy. 

Quimby's  followers  do  not  assert  that  Quimby  wrote  Science 
and  Health,  or  that  he  is  the  responsible  author  of  all  the 
ideas  now  formulated  in  the  Christian  Science  creed.     In  brief, 

71 


n  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

their  position  is  this :  that  Mrs.  Eddy  obtained  the  radical 
principle  of  her  Science, — the  cure  of  disease  by  the  power  of 
Divine  mind, — from  Quimby ;  that  she  left  Portland  with  manu- 
scripts which  formed  the  basis  of  her  book.  Science  and  Health; 
that  she  publicly  figured  for  several  years  after  Quimby's  death 
as  the  teacher  and  practitioner  of  his  system ;  that  she  had, 
herself,  before  1875,  repeatedly  acknowledged  her  obligations 
to  him ;  and  that  since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of 
Science  and  Health,  in  her  determined  efforts  to  disprove  this 
obligation,  she  has  not  hesitated  to  bring  discredit  upon  her 
former  teacher.  They  do  not  maintain  that  Quimby  is,  in  any 
sense,  the  founder  of  the  present  Christian  Science  organisa- 
tion ;  they  do  declare,  however,  that  had  Mrs.  Eddy  never  visited 
Quimby,  never  listened  to  his  ideas  or  studied  his  writings, 
such  an  organisation  would  probably  not  now  exist.  On  the 
other  hand.  Christian  Scientists  repudiate  any  suggestion  that 
Mrs.  Eddy,  or  their  ecclesiastical  establishment,  is  in  the  slight- 
est degree  indebted  to  the  Portland  healer. 

Christian  Scientists  beheve  that  Mrs.  Eddy  received  the  truths 
of  Christian  Science  as  a  direct  revelation  from  God.  She  came 
to  fulfil  and  to  complete  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus, 
that  is,  possessed  only  partial  wisdom.  "  Our  Master  healed 
the  sick,"  she  writes  in  Science  and  Health,  ".  .  .  and  taught 
the  generalities  of  its  divine  Principle  to  his  students;  but 
he  left  no  definite  rule  for  demonstrating  his  Principle  of  healing 
and  preventing  disease.  This  remained  to  be  discovered  through 
Christian  Science."  ^  "  Jesus'  wisdom  ofttlmes  was  shown  by 
His  forbearing  to  speak,"  she  writes,  "  as  well  as  by  His  speak- 
^  Science  and  Health    (1898),  p.  41. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  73 

ing,  the  whole  truth.  .  .  .  Had  wisdom  characterised  all  His  " 
sayings,  He  would  not  have  prophesied  His  own  death  and 
thereby  hastened  it  or  caused  it."  ^  In  other  words,  Jesus, 
by  foretelling  His  crucifixion,  created  that  thought,  and  the 
thought  ultimately  hastened  His  death.  In  a  letter  written 
about  1877,  Mrs.  Eddy  again  suggests  that  her  mission  com- 
pletes that  of  the  New  Testament : 

Lynn,  March  11th. 
My  Dear  Student: 

I  did  not  write  the  day  your  letter  came,  a  belief  was  clouding  the 
sunshine  of  Truth  and  it  is  not  fair  weather  yet.  But  Harry,  be  of 
good  cheer  "  behind  the  clouds  the  sun  is  still  shining."  /  know  the 
crucifixion  of  the  one  who  presents  Truth  in  its  hie/her  aspect  will  be  this 
time  through  a  bigger  error,  through  mortal  mind  instead  of  its  lower 
strata  or  matter,  showing  that  the  idea  given  of  God  this  time  is  higher, 
clearer,  and  more  permanent  than  before^  My  dear  companion  and  fellow- 
labourer  in  the  Lord  ^  is  grappling  stronger  than  did  Peter  with  the 
enemy,  he  would  cut  off  their  hands  and  "  ears " ;  you  dear  student,  are 
doubtless  praying  for  me — and  so  the  Modern  Law  giver  is  upheld  for  a 
time.  I  shall  go  to  work  for  the  book  as  soon  as  I  can  think  clearly  for 
agony,  or  outside  of  the  belief. 

May  the  All  Love  hold  and  help  you  ever. 

Your  Teacher 

M  B  G  E. 

In  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  Mrs.  Eddy  writes : 

No  person  can  take  the  individual  place  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  No  person 
can  compass  or  fulfil  the  indi\idual  mission  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  No 
person  can  take  the  place  of  the  author  of  Science  and  Health,  the  dis- 


2  Both  this  and  other  quotations  in  this  article  have  been  modified  in  later 
editions  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  hooks.  The  phrase  above  now  stands  :  "  This  wisdom, 
which  characterised  his  saylnjjs  did  not  prophesy  his  death  and  thereby  hasten 
or  permit  It."  The  author  thinks  It  hardly  necessary,  In  what  follows,  to 
Indicate  tlie  various  readings  of  the  same  quotation,  but  will  content  herself 
with  namins  the  particular  editions  In  which  the  phrases,  as  quoted,  appear. 
When  no  edition  is  mentioned,   the  latest  edition  is  to  be  understood. 

^Miscellaneous   Writinf/s    (1897),  pp.   83  and  84. 

*  The   italics   are    not    Mrs.    Eddy's. 

^  This  is  apparently  a  reference  to  Asa  G.  Eddy,  her  husband. 


74  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

coverer  and   founder   of  Christian   Science.     Each  individual   must  fill  his 
own  niche  in  time  and  eternity. 

The  second  appearing  of  Jesus  is  unquestionably,  the  spiritual  advent 
of  the  advancing  idea  of  God  as  in  Christian   Science.' 


Mrs.  Eddy  believes  that  Christian  Science  is  foretold  in  the 
Book  of  Revelation.     In  Science  and  Health  she  writes: 

John  the  Baptist  prophesied  the  coming  of  the  Immaculate  Jesus  and 
declared  that  this  spiritual  idea  was  the  Messiah  who  would  baptise  with 
the  Holy  Ghost — Divine  Science.  The  son  of  the  Blessed  represents  the 
fatherhood  of  God;  and  the  Revelator  completes  this  figure  with  the 
Woman,  or  type  of  God's  motherhood.' 

Again 

Saint  John  writes,  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  his  Book  of  Revelation: 
"  And  I  saw  another  mighty  angel  come  down  from  Heaven,  clothed  with  a 
cloud;  and  a  rainbow  was  upon  his  head,  and  his  face  was  as  it  were  the 
sun,  and  his  feet  as  pillars  of  fire.  And  he  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book 
open;  and  he  set  his  right  foot  upon  the  sea,  and  his  left  foot  upon  the 
earth."  Is  this  angel,  or  message  from  God,  Divine  Science  that  comes 
in  a  cloud?  To  mortals  obscure,  abstract,  and  dark;  but  a  bright  promise 
crowns  its  brow.  When  understood,  it  is  Truth's  prism  and  praise;  when 
you  look  it  fairly  in  the  face,  you  can  heal  by  its  means,  and  it  hath  for 
you  a  light  above  the  sun,  for  God  "  is  the  light  thereof."  .  .  .  This 
angel  had  in  his  hand  a  "  little  book,"  open  for  all  to  read  and  understand. 
Did  this  same  book  contain  the  revelation  of  Divine  Science,  whose  "  right 
foot "  or  dominant  power  was  upon  the  sea, — upon  elementary,  latent 
error,  the  source  of  all  error's  visible  forms?  .  .  .  Then  will  a  voice 
from  harmony  cry:  "Go  and  take  the  little  book.  Take  it  and  eat  it  up, 
and  it  shall  make  thy  belly  bitter;  but  it  shall  be  in  thy  mouth  sweet  as 
honey."  Mortal,  obey  the  heavenly  evangel.  Take  up  Divine  Science. 
Study  it,  ponder  it.  It  will  be  indeed  sweet  at  its  first  taste,  when  it  heals 
you;  but  murmur  not  over  Truth,  if  you  find  its  digestion  bitter.  ,  .  . 
In  the  opening  of  the  Sixth  Seal,  typical  of  six  thousand  years  since 
Adam,  there  is  one  distinctive  feature  which  has  special  reference  to  the 
present  age? 


*  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  pp.  95  and  96. 

''Science  and  Health    (1888),   p.    513. 

"The  italics  in   this  paragi-aph   arc   not   Mrs.    Eddy's. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  75 

Rev.  xii.  1.  "  And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  Heaven, — a 
woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her 
head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars."  .  .  .  Rev.  xii.  5.  "  And  she  brought 
forth  a  man-child,  who  was  to  rule  all  nations  with  a  rod  of  iron;  and 
her  child  was  caught  up  unto  God,  and  to  his  Throne."  Led  on  by 
the  grossest  element  of  mortal  mind,  Herod  decreed  the  death  of  every 
male  child,  in  order  that  the  man  Jesus  {the  masculine  representative  of  the 
spiritual  idea)  might  never  hold  sway,  and  so  deprive  Herod  of  his 
crown.  The  imjjersonation  of  tlie  spiritual  idea  had  a  brief  history  in 
the  earthly  life  of  our  Master;  but  "of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end," 
for  Christ,  God's  idea,  will  eventually  rule  all  nations  and  peoples — im- 
peratively, absolutely,  finally — with  Divine  Science.  This  immaculate  idea, 
represented  first  by  man  and  last  by  woman,  will  baptise  with  fire;  and 
the  fiery  baptism  will  burn  up  the  chaif  of  error  with  the  fervent  heat 
of  Truth  and  Love,  melting  and  purifying  even  the  gold  of  human 
character.' 

The  following  extracts  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings  indicate 
the  magnitude  of  her  claims,  and  her  conception  of  her  own 
exalted  mission : 

She  says  in  Science  and  Health: 

In  the  year  1866,  I  discovered  the  Science  of  Metaphysical  Healing, 
and  named  it  Christian  Science.  God  had  been  graciously  fitting  me,  during 
many  years,  for  the  reception  of  a  final  revelation  of  the  absolute  Principle 
of  Scientific  Mind-healing.  .  .  .  No  human  pen  or  tongue  taught  me 
the  Science  contained  in  this  book  .  .  .  and  neither  tongue  nor  pen 
can  ever  overthrow  it.^" 

Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  continues  the  teach- 
ings of  St.  Paul. 

On  our  subject,  St.  Paul  first  reasons  upon  the  basis  of  what  is  seen, 
the  eff"ects  of  Truth  on  the  material  senses;  thence,  up  to  the  Unseen,  the 
testimony  of  spiritual  sense;  and  right  there  he  leaves  the  subject. 

Just  there,  in  the  intermediate  line  of  thought,  is  where  the  present 
writer  found  it,  when  she  discovered  Christian  Science.  And  she  has  not 
left  it,  but  continues  the  explanation  of  the  power  of  Spirit  up  to  its 
infinite  meaning,  its  AUness.^' 


^Science  and  HeaUh    (1808),   pp.   550,   551,   552,  and  557. 
^"Science  and  Health    (1898),   pp.   1   and  4. 
^Miscellaneous   Writings    (1897),  p.   188. 


76  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  believe  that  her  discovery,  in  a  manner, 
has  repeated  the  day  of  Pentecost  and  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  man.      She  says: 

This  understanding  is  what  is  meant  by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — 
that  influx  of  divine  Science  which  so  illuminated  the  Pentecostal  Day, 
and   is   now   repeating   its   ancient   history.     .     .     . 

In  the  words  of  St.  John:  "He  shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that 
he  may  abide  with  you  forever."  This  Comforter  I  understand  to  be 
Divine   Science." 

In  Miscellaneous  Writings,  Mrs.  Eddy  further  says  of  her 
Science  and  her  ministry: 

Above  the  fogs  of  sense  and  storms  of  passion,  Christian  Science  and 
its  Art  will  rise  triumphant;  ignorance,  envy,  and  hatred — earth's  harm- 
less thunder — pluck  not  their  heaven-born  wings.  Angels,  with  overtures, 
hold  charge  over  both,  and  announce  their  principle  and  idea.     .     .     . 

No  works  similar  to  mine  on  Christian  Science  existed,  prior  to  my 
discovery  of  this  Science.  Before  the  publication  of  my  first  work  on  this 
subject,  a  few  manuscripts  of  mine  were  in  circulation.  The  discovery 
and  founding  of  Christian  Science  has  cost  more  than  thirty  years  of 
unremitting  toil  and  unrest;  but,  comparing  those  with  Ihe  joy  of  knowing 
that  the  sinner  and  the  sick  are  helped  upward,  that  time  and  eternity 
bear  witness  to  this  gift  of  God  to  the  race,  I  am  the  debtor. 

In  1895,  I  ordained  the  Bible,  and  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to 
THE  Scriptures,  the  Christian  Science  Text-book,  as  the  Pastor,  on  this 
planet,  of  all  the  churches  of  the  Christian  Science  Denomination.  This 
ordinance  took  effect  the  same  year,  and  met  with  the  universal  approval 
'and  support  of  Christian  Scientists.  Whenever  and  wherever  a  church  of 
Christian  Science  is  established,  its  Pastor  is  the  Bible  and  My  Book. 

In  1896,  it  goes  without  saying,  preeminent  over  ignorance  or  envy, 
that  Christian  Science  is  founded  by  its  discoverer,  and  built  upon  the 
Rock  of  Christ.  The  elements  of  earth  beat  in  vain  against  the  immortal 
parapets  of  this  Science.  Erect  and  eternal,  it  will  go  on  with  the  ages, 
go  down  the  dim  posterns  of  time  unharmed,  and  on  every  battlefield 
rise  higher  in  the  estimation  of  thinkers,  and  in  the  hearts  of  Christians." 

To  Christian  Scientists,  therefore,  Mrs.  Eddy's  discovery 
or  revelation  was  a  great  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the 


i2Kc)P«cp  and  Tlealih    (1900K   pp.   48  and  55. 
^^Miscellaneous    Wrilinsjs    (1807),   pp.    374,   382,   and  383. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  77 

human  race,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  came  about  is  of  the 
highest  importance. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  definitely  just  when  Mrs.  Eddy 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  mortal  mind,  not  matter,  causes 
sin,  sickness,  and  death,-  as  her  own  recollection  of  her  initial 
revelation  seems  to  be  somewhat  blurred.  "  As  long  ago  as 
1844,"  she  writes  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  in  June, 
1887,  "  I  was  convinced  that  mortal  mind  produced  all  disease, 
and  that  the  various  medical  systems  were,  in  no  proper  sense, 
scientific.  In  1862,  when  I  first  visited  Mr.  Quimby,  I  was 
proclaiming — to  druggists,  Spiritualists,  and  mesmerists — that 
science  must  govern  all  healing." 

To  her  discovery  of  the  principle  of  mental  healing,  she  has 
assigned  no  less  than  three  different  dates : 

In  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Post,  March  7,  1883,  she  says: 

We  made  our  first  experiments  in  mental  healing  about  1853,  when  we 
were  convinced  that  mind  had  a  science,  which,  if  understood,  would  heal 
all  disease. 

A.gain,  in  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health  (1875),  she 

says: 

We  made  our  first  discovery  that  science  mentally  applied  would  heal 
the  sick,  in  1864,  and  since  then  have  tested  it  on  ourselves  and  hundreds 
of  others  and  never  found  it  fail  to  prove  the  statement  herein  made  of  it. 

In  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  she  says: 

It  was  in  Massachusetts,  in  February,  1866,  ,  .  .  that  I  discovered  the 
Science  of  Divine  Metaphysical  Healing,  which  I  afterwards  named  Chris- 
tian Science." 

In  later  editions  of  Science  and  Health,  and  in  numerous 
other  places,  Mrs.  Eddy  definitely  fixes  1866  as  the  year  of  her 


"  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  p.  38. 


78  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

discovery.  This  is  now  the  generally  accepted  date.  Her 
enemies  have  naturally  made  much  of  the  seeming  inconsistency 
of  these  statements.  To  disprove  her  claim  that  she  had  a 
knowledge  of  mind  healing  as  far  back  as  1844  or  1853,  they 
quote  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  words  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal 
of  June,  1887.  She  there  says  that  before  her  visit  to  Quimby 
in  1862,  "  I  knew  nothing  of  the  Science  of  Mind-healing.  .  .  . 
Mind  Science  was  unknown  to  me." 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  each  of  these  dates 
mig'ht  be  intrinsically  correct,  as  each  might  mark  an  important 
advance  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  mastery  of  her  science.  It  would  be 
extremely  difficult  for  any  discoverer  to  date  exactly  the  in- 
ception of  an  idea  which  eventually  absorbed  him  completely. 
Doubtless  these  seeming  inaccuracies  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  part  would 
have  been  passed  over  as  due  to  mere  inexactness  of  expression, 
had  not  each  date  been  given  to  meet  some  specific  charge  as 
to  her  indebtedness  to  Quimby — and  given,  as  it  would  seem, 
mainly  for  the  purpose  of  extricating  herself  from  the  difficulty 
of  the  moment. 

As  sho^vn  above,  in  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health 
(1875),  she  said  that  it  was  in  1864  that  she  first  discovered 
that  "  science  mentally  applied  would  heal  the  sick." 

Eight  years  after  Mrs.  Eddy  had  announced  1864  as  the 
correct  and  authentic  date  of  her  discovery,  Julius  A.  Dresser,^® 


"Julius  A.  Drpsser  was  born  in  Portland.  Me.,  February  12,  183S.  He 
was  in  colloE;e  in  Watcrvillc,  Me.,  wben  his  health  failed.  lie  had  a 
strongly  emotional  religious  nature  and  intended  to  become  a  minister  in  the 
f'nlTiiiistic  Baptist  Church.  When  he  went  to  Mr.  Quimbv  in  the  summer  of 
1800,    he    apparently    had    only    a    short    time    to    live.     Quimbv    told    him    his 

religion  was  killing  him."  Quimby  treated  him  successfully  for  typhoid 
pneumonia,  according  to  Mr.  Dresser's  son.  Horatio  W.  Dresser  of  Cambridge, 
and  "  gave  him  the  understanding  which  enabled  mv  father  to  live  thirty-three 
years  after  his  restoration   to  health." 

Mr.    Dresser   became    an   enthusiastic   convert   to    the    Quimby    faith   and   for 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  79 

in  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Post  (February  24,  1883),  advanced 
Quimby's  claim.  It  was  in  a  reply  to  this  letter,  written  March 
7,  1883,  published  in  the  same  paper,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  first 
asserted :  "  We  made  our  first  experiments  in  mental  healing 
about  1853." 

Four  years  later  (February  6,  1887),  Mr.  Dresser  delivered 
an  address  upon  "  The  True  History  of  Mental  Science,"  at 
the  Church  of  Divine  Unity,  in  Boston,  in  which  he  declared 
that  Quimby  was  the  originator  of  the  present  science  of  mental 
healing,  and  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  understand  disease  as  a 
state  of  mind  until  she  was  his  patient  and  pupil.  This  address 
caused  such  comment  and  discussion,  that  four  months  later 
(June,  1887)  Mrs.  Eddy  answered  it  through  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  by  asserting :  "  As  long  ago  as  1844,  I  was 
convinced  that  mortal  mind  produced  all  disease.  ...  In  1862 
.  .  .  I  was  proclaiming  .  .  .  that  science  must  govern  all 
healing-." 


some  years  devoted  himself  to  explaining  Quimby's  principle  of  mental  healing 
to  new  patients.  In  this  way  he  met  Miss  Annetta  G.  Seabury,  whom  he 
married  in   September,  1863,  and  Mrs.   Eddy,   then  Mrs.   Patterson. 

After  his  marriage  Mr.  Dresser  took  up  newspaper  work  in  Portland  and  in 
1866  moved  to  Webster,  Mass.,  where  he  edited  and  published  the  Webster 
Times. 

The  death  of  Quimby  was  a  great  shock  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dresser.  It  was 
generally  expected  by  Quimby's  followers  that  Mr.  Dresser  would  take  up  the 
work  as  Quimby's  successor'  Mrs.  Dressor  hesitated  to  attempt  it  publicly, 
knowing  her  own  and  her  husband's  sensitiveness,  and  after  consideration  they 
decided  not  to  undertake  it  at  that  time.  "  This."  says  Mr.  Horatio  W. 
Dresser,  "was  a  fundamentally  decisive  ac(ion,  and  much  stress  should  be 
placed  upon  it.  For  Mrs.  Eddy  naturally  looked  to  fathor  as  the  probable 
successor,  and  when  she  learned  from  father  that  he  had  no  thought  of  taking 
up  the  public  work,  the  field  became  free  for  her.  I  am  convinced  that  she  had 
no  desire  previous  to  that  time  to  make  any  claims  for  herself.  Her  letters 
give  evidence  of  this." 

Mr.  Dresser's  health  again  weakened  from  overwork,  and  after  living  in  the 
West  for  a  time  he  returned  to  Massachusetts  and  began  his  public  work  as 
mental  teacher  and  healer.  In  Boston  Mr.  Dresser  found  that  Mrs.  Rddy  s 
pupils  and  rejected  pupils  wore  practising-  with  the  sick,  and  he  believed  that 
their  work  was  inferior  to  Quimby's.  This  gave  him  confidence  to  begin.  In 
1882  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dresser  began  to  practise  in  Boston,  and  in  1883  they 
were  holding  class  lectures,  teaching  from  the  Quimby  manuscripts  and  prac- 
tising the  Qulmbv  method.  ,  . 

From  this  the  "facts  with  regard  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Mr.  Quimby  spread,  and 
this  was  the  beginning  of  the  Quimby  controversy. 


80  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  unprejudiced  historian  finds  discrepancies,  not  only  in 
the  dates  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  discovery,  but  in  her  accounts  of  the 
particular  episodes  which  occasioned  it.  In  the  several  editions 
of  Science  and  Health,  for  example,  there  are  two  elaborate 
versions.  In  the  early  editions  Mrs.  Eddy  associates  her  dis- 
covery with  experiments  which  she  made  to  cure  herself  of 
dyspepsia;  in  later  editions,  as  the  result  of  a  miraculous  re- 
covery from  a  spinal  injury  received  in  a  fall  on  the  ice  in 
Lynn,  in  1866.  Both  these  episodes  are  related  in  all  editions 
of  the  book.  In  the  early  versions,  however,  the  recovery  from 
dyspepsia  receives  the  greater  emphasis ;  while  in  recent  editions 
the  fall  on  the  ice  assumes  the  chief  importance,  with  the  other 
story  forced  more  and  more  into  the  background. 

In  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health  (1875),  Mrs.  Eddy 
gives  the  following  account  of  how  she  was  led  to  see  the  truth : 

When  quite  a  child,  we  adopted  the  Graham  system  for  dyspepsia,  ate 
only  bread  and  vegetables,  and  drank  water,  following  this  diet  for  years; 
we  became  more  dyspeptic,  however,  and  of  course  thought  we  must  diet 
more  rigidly;  so  we  partook  of  but  one  meal  in  twenty-four  hours,  and 
this  consisted  of  a  thin  slice  of  bread,  about  three  inches  square,  without 
water;  our  physician  not  allowing  us  with  this  simple  meal,  to  wet  our 
parched  lips  for  many  hours  thereafter;  whenever  we  drank,  it  produced 
violent  retchings.  Thus  we  passed  most  of  our  early  years,  as  many 
can  attest,  in  hunger,  pain,  weakness  and  starvation.  At  length  we  learned 
that  while  fasting  increased  the  desire  for  food,  it  spared  none  of  the 
sufferings  occasioned  by  partaking  of  it,  and  what  to  do  next,  having 
already  exhausted  the  medicine  men,  was  a  question.  After  years  of 
suffering,  when  we  made  up  our  mind  to  die,  our  doctors  kindly  assuring 
us  this  was  our  only  alternative,  our  eyes  were  suddenlj^  opened,  and  we 
learned  suffering  is  self-imposed,  a  belief,  and  not  truth.  That  God 
never  made  men  sick;  and  all  our  fasting  for  penance  or  health  is 
not  acceptable  to  Wisdom  because  it  is  not  the  science  in  which  Soul 
governs  sense.  Thus  Truth,  opening  our  eyes,  relieved  our  stomach,  also, 
and  enabled  us  to  eat  without  suffering,  giving  God  thanks;  but  we  never 
afterwards  enjoyed  food  as  we  expected  to,  if  ever  we  were  a  freed  slave, 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  81 

to  eat  without  a  master;  for  the  new-born  understanding  that  food  could 
not  hurt  us,  brought  with  it  another  point,  viz.,  that  it  did  not  help  us  as 
we  had  anticipated  it  would  before  our  changed  views  on  this  subject; 
food  had  less  power  over  us  for  evil  or  for  good  than  when  we  consulted 
matter  before  spirit  and  believed  in  pains  or  pleasures  of  personal  sense. 
As  a  natural  result  we  took  less  thought  about  "  what  we  should  eat  or  what 
drink,"  and  fasting  or  feasting,  consulted  less  our  stomachs  and  our 
food,  arguing  against  their  claims  continually,  and  in  this  manner  despoiled 
them  of  their  power  over  us  to  give  pleasure  or  pain,  and  recovered 
strength  and  flesh  rapidly,  enjoying  health  and  harmony  that  we  never 
before  had  done. 

The  belief  that  fasting  or  feasting  enables  man  to  grow  better,  morally  or 
physically,  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  "  tree  of  knowledge  "  against  which 
Wisdom  warned  man,  and  of  which  we  had  partaken  in  sad  experience;  be- 
lieving for  many  years  we  lived  only  by  the  strictest  adherence  to  dietetics 
and  physiolog}^  During  this  time  we  also  learned  a  dyspeptic  is  very  far 
from  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  from  having  "  dominion  over  the 
fish  of  the  sea,  the  fowls  of  the  air,  or  beasts  of  the  field";  therefore 
that  God  never  made  one;  while  the  Graham  system,  hygiene,  physiology, 
materia  medica,  etc.,  did,  and  contrary  to  his  commands.  Then  it  was 
that  we  promised  God  to  spend  our  coming  years  for  the  sick  and  suffer- 
ing; to  unmask  this  error  of  belief  that  matter  rules  man.  Our  cure 
for  dyspepsia  was,  to  learn  the  science  of  being,  and  "  eat  what  was  set 
before  us,  asking  no  question  for  conscience'  sake;  yea  to  consult  matter 
less   and   God  more." 

In  the  latest  editions,  Mrs.  Eddy  relates  this  incident,  but 
does  not  connect  herself  with  it.  "  I  knew  a  woman,"  she 
says,  "  who,  when  quite  a  child,  adopted  the  Graham  system 
to  cure  dyspepsia,"  giving  the  incident  merely  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  Christian  Science  healing. 

At  present,  Christian  Scientists  date  the  da^m  of  the  new  era 
from  February  1,  1866,  on  the  evening  of  which  day  Mrs. 
Eddy  fell  on  the  ice.  She  says  in  Retrospection  and  Intro- 
spection: 

It  was  in  Massachusetts,  February,  1866,  and  after  the  death  of  the 
magnetic  doctor,  Mr.  P.  P.  Quimbj%  whom  Spiritualists  would  associate 
therewith,  but  who  was  in  no-wise  connected  with  this  event,  that  I  dis- 
covered the  Science  of  Divine  Metaphysical  Healing,  which  I  afterwards 


82  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

named  Christian  Science.  The  discovery  came  to  pass  in  this  way.  During 
twenty  years  prior  to  my  discovery  I  had  been  trying  to  trace  all  physical 
eifects  to  a  mental  cause;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  1866  I  gained  the 
Scientific  certainty  that  all  causation  was  Mind,  and  every  effect  a  mental 
phenomenon. 

My  immediate  recovery  from  the  eflfects  of  an  injury  caused  by  an 
accident,  an  injury  that  neither  medicine  nor  surgery  could  reach,  was 
the  falling  apple  that  led  me  to  the  discovery  how  to  be  well  myself, 
and  how  to  make  others  so. 

Even  to  the  Homeopathic  physician  who  attended  me,  and  rejoiced  in 
my  recovery,  I  could  not  then  explain  the  modus  of  my  relief.  I  could 
only  assure  him  that  the  Divine  Spirit  had  wrought  the  miracle — a  miracle 
which  later  I  found  to  be  in  perfect  Scientific  accord  with  divine  law." 

In  a  sketch  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  published  by  the  Christian  Science 
PubHshing  Society,  still  a  later  version  is  given : 

In  company  with  her  husband,  she  was  returning  from  an  errand  of 
mercy,  when  she  fell  upon  the  icy  curbstone,  and  was  carried  helpless 
to  her  home.  The  skilled  physicians  declared  that  there  was  absolutely 
no  hope  for  her,  and  pronounced  the  verdict  that  she  had  but  three 
days  to  live.  Finding  no  hope  and  no  help  on  earth,  she  lifted  her  heart 
to  God.  On  the  third  day,  calling  for  her  Bible,  she  asked  the  family  to 
leave  the  room.  Her  Bible  opened  to  the  healing  of  the  palsied  man, 
Matt,  ix,  2.  The  truth  which  set  him  free,  she  saw.  The  power  which 
gave  him  strength,  she  felt.  The  life  divine,  which  healed  the  sick  of  the 
palsy,  restored  her,  and  she  rose  from  the  bed  of  pain,  healed  and  free. 

Several  documents  can  be  brought  in  refutation  of  this  claim. 
Mrs,  Eddy's  own  letter  to  Julius  A.  Dresser,  after  the  death 
of  Quimby,  apparently  disproves  the  miraculous  account  given 
above.  This  letter,  already  quoted  in  full  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  contains  the  first  recorded  reference  to  this  accident: 

Two  weeks  ago  I  fell  on  the  sidewalk  (writes  Mrs.  Eddy),  and  struck 
my  back  on  the  ice,  and  was  taken  up  for  dead,  came  to  consciousness 
amid  a  storm  of  vapours  from  cologne,  chloroform,  ether,  camphor,  etc., 
but  to  find  myself  the  helpless  cripple  I  was  before  I  saw  Dr.  Quimby. 

"Retrospection  and  Introspection,  p.  38. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  83 

The  physician  attending  said  I  had  taken  the  last  step  I  ever  should, 
but  in  two  days  I  got  out  of  my  bed  alone  and  tvill  walk;  but  yet  I 
confess  I  am  frightened,  and  out  of  that  nervous  heat  my  friends  are 
forming,  sj)ite  of  me,  the  terrible  spinal  aifection  from  which  I  have 
suffered  so  long  and  hopelessly.  .  .  .  Now  can't  you  help  me?  I  believe 
you  can.  I  write  this  with  this  feeling:  I  think  that  I  could  help  another 
in  my  condition  if  they  had  not  placed  their  intelligence  in  matter.  This 
I  have  not  done,  and  yet  I  am  slowly  failing.  Won't  you  write  me  if 
you  will  undertake  for  me  if  I  can  get  to  you? 

In  this  letter,  although  it  was  written  two  weeks  after  the 
mishap  in  question,  Mrs.  Eddy  makes  no  reference  to  a  miracu- 
lous recovery.  In  fact,  she  apparently  fears  a  return  of  her 
old  spinal  trouble  and  asks  Mr,  Dresser  to  protect  her  against 
it  by  the  Quimby  method.  She  adds  that,  although  she  has 
not  placed  her  "  intelligence  in  matter,"  she  is  "  slowly  failing." 

In  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  refers 
to  this  recovery,  but  merely  as  an  interesting  demonstration  of 
Scientific  healing.  She  also  describes  it  in  a  letter  written  in 
1871  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Wright.  Wright,  a  well-known  citizen  of 
Lynn,  and  a  prospective  student,  addressed  several  questions 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  concerning  Christian  Science.  "  What  do  you 
claim  for  it,"  he  says,  "  in  cases  of  sprains,  broken  limbs, 
cuts,  bruises,  etc.,  when  a  surgeon's  services  are  generally  re- 
quired ?  "     To  which  Mrs.  Eddy,  then  Mrs.  Glover,  replied : 

I  have  demonstrated  upon  myself  in  an  injury  occasioned  by  a  fall, 
that  it  did  for  me  what  surgeons  could  not  do.  Dr.  Gushing  of  this  city 
pronounced  my  injury  incurable  and  that  I  could  not  survive  three  days 
because  of  it,  when  on  the  third  day  I  rose  from  my  bed  and  to  the  utter 
confusion  of  all  I  commenced  my  usual  avocations  and  notwithstanding 
displacements,  etc.,  I  regained  the  natural  position  and  functions  of  the 
body.  How  far  my  students  can  demonstrate  in  such  extreme  cases  depends 
on  the  progress  they  have  made  in  this  Science. 

Here  again  Mrs.  Eddy  cites  the  experience  merely  as  a  re- 


84.    LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

markable  instance  of  the  power  of  Christian  Science ;  and  does 
not  connect  it  in  any  way  with  her  revelation. 

The  Dr.  Gushing  to  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  refers  in  this  letter 
is  still  living  at  Springfield,  Mass.  He  has  the  clearest  recol- 
lection of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  accident  in  question.  He  is  an 
ex-president  of  the  Massachusetts  Homoeopathic  Society.  From 
his  records  he  has  made  the  following  affidavit: 

COMMONWEALTH    OF    MASSACHUSETTS 
COUNTY  OF  HAMPDEN,  SS. : 

Alvin  M.  Gushing,  being  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says:  I  am  seventy- 
seven  years  of  age,  and  reside  in  the  City  of  Springfield  in  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts.  I  am  a  medical  doctor  of  the  homeopathic 
school  and  have  practised  medicine  for  fifty  years  last  past.  On  July  13 
in  the  year  1865  I  commenced  the  practice  of  my  profession  in  the  City 
of  I>ynn,  in  said  Commonwealth,  and,  while  there,  kept  a  careful  and 
accurate  record,  in  detail,  of  my  various  cases,  my  attendance  upon  and 
my  treatment  of  them.  One  of  my  cases  of  which  I  made  and  have  such 
a  record  is  that  of  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Patterson,  then  the  wife  of  one  Daniel 
Patterson,  a  dentist,  and  now  Mrs.  Mary  G.  Eddy,  of  Concord,  New 
Hampshire. 

On  February  1,  1866,  I  was  called  to  the  residence  of  Samuel  M.  Bubier, 
who  was  a  shoe  manufacturer  and  later  was  mayor  of  Lynn,  to  attend 
said  Mrs.  Patterson,  who  had  fallen  upon  the  icy  sidewalk  in  front  of 
Mr.  Bubier's  factory  and  had  injured  lier  head  by  the  fall.  I  found  her 
very  nervous,  partially  unconscious,  semi-hysterical,  complaining  by  word 
and  action  of  severe  pain  in  the  back  of  her  head  and  neck.  This  was  early 
in  the  evening,  and  I  gave  her  medicine  every  fifteen  minutes  until  she 
was  more  quiet,  then  left  her  with  Mrs.  Bubier  for  a  little  time,  ordering 
the  medicine  to  be  given  every  half  hour  until  my  return.  I  made  a 
second  visit  later  and  left  Mrs.  Patterson  at  midnight,  with  directions  to 
give  the  medicine  every  half  hour  or  hour  as  seemed  necessary,  when 
awake,  but  not  disturb  her  if  asleep. 

In  the  morning  Mrs.  Bubier  told  me  my  orders  had  been  carried  out 
and  said  Mrs.  Patterson  had  slept  some.  I  found  her  quite  rational  but 
complaining  of  severe  pain,  almost  spasmodic  on  moving.  She  declared  that 
she  was  going  to  her  home  in  Swampscott  whether  we  consented  or  not. 
On  accoxmt  of  the  severe  pain  and  nervousness,  I  gave  her  one-eighth  of 
a  grain  of  morphine,  not  as  a  curative  remedy,  but  as  an  expedient  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  85 

lessen  the  pain  on  removing.  As  soon  as  I  could,  I  procured  a  long  sleigh 
with  robes  and  blankets,  and  two  men  from  a  nearby  stable.  On  my 
return,  to  my  surprise  found  her  sound  asleep.  We  placed  her  in  the 
sleigh  and  carried  her  to  her  home  in  Swampscott,  without  a  moan.  At 
her  home  the  two  men  undertook  to  carry  her  upstairs,  and  she  was  so 
sound  asleep  and  limp  she  "doubled  up  like  a  jack-knife,"  so  I  placed 
myself  on  the  stairs  on  my  hands  and  feet  and  they  laid  her  on  my  back, 
and  in  that  way  we  carried  her  upstairs  and  placed  her  in  bed.  She  slept 
till  nearly  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon;  so  long  I  began  to  fear  there  had 
been  some  mistake  in  the  dose. 

Said  Mrs.  Patterson  proved  to  be  a  very  interesting  patient,  and  one  of 
the  most  sensitive  to  the  effects  of  medicine  that  I  ever  saw,  which 
accounted  for  the  effects  of  the  small  dose  of  morphine.  Probably  one- 
sixteenth  of  a  grain  would  have  put  her  sound  asleep.  Each  day  that 
I  visited  her,  I  dissolved  a  small  portion  of  a  highly  attenuated  remedy 
in  one-half  a  glass  of  water  and  ordered  a  teaspoonful  given  every  two 
hours,  usually  giving  one  dose  while  there.  She  told  me  she  could  feel 
each  dose  to  the  tips  of  her  fingers  and  toes,  and  gave  me  much  credit 
for  my  ability  to  select  a  remedy. 

I  visited  her  twice  on  February  first,  twice  on  the  second,  once  on  the 
third,  and  once  on  the  fifth,  and  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  same  month 
my  bill  was  paid.  During  my  visits  to  her  she  spoke  to  me  of  a  Dr. 
Quimby  of  Portland,  Maine,  who  had  treated  her  for  some  severe  illness 
with  remarkable  success.  She  did  not  tell  what  his  method  was,  but  I 
inferred  it  was  not  the  usual  method  of  either  school  of  medicine. 

There  was,  to  my  knowledge,  no  other  physician  in  attendance  upon  Mrs. 
Patterson  during  this  illness  from  the  day  of  the  accident,  February  1, 
1866,  to  my  final  visit  on  February  13th,  and  when  I  left  her  on  the 
13th  day  of  February,  she  seemed  to  have  recovered  from  the  disturbance 
caused  by  the  accident  and  to  be,  practically,  in  her  normal  condition.  I  did 
not  at  any  time  declare,  or  believe,  that  there  was  no  hope  for  Mrs. 
Patterson's  recovery,  or  that  she  was  in  a  critical  condition,  and  did  not 
at  any  time  say,  or  believe,  that  she  had  but  three  or  any  other  limited 
number  of  days  to  live.  Mrs.  Patterson  did  not  suggest,  or  say,  or 
pretend,  or  in  any  way  whatever  intimate,  that  on  the  third,  or  any 
other  day,  of  her  said  illness,  she  had  miraculously  recovered  or  been 
healed,  or  that,  discovering  or  perceiving  the  truth  of  the  power  employed 
by  Christ  to  heal  the  sick,  she  had,  by  it,  been  restored  to  health.  As  I 
have  stated,  on  the  third  and  subsequent  days  of  her  said  illness,  resulting 
from  her  said  fall  on  the  ice,  I  attended  Mrs.  Patterson  and  gave  her 
medicine;  and  on  the  10th  day  of  the  following  August,  I  was  again 
called  to  see  her,  this  time  at  the  home  of  a  Mrs.  Clark,  on  Sumner  Street, 
in   said   City   of   Lynn.     I    found    Mrs.    Patterson    suffering    from    a   bad 


86  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

cough  and  prescribed  for  her.  I  made  three  more  professional  calls  upon 
Mrs.  Patterson  and  treated  her  for  this  cough  in  the  said  month  of 
August,  and  with  that,  ended  my  professional  relations  with  her. 

I  think  I  never  met  Mrs.  Patterson  after  August  31,  1866,  but  saw  her 
often  during  the  next  few  j'ears  and  heard  tliat  she  claimed  to  have  dis- 
covered a  new  method  of  curing  disease. 

Each  of  the  said  visits  upon  Mrs.  Patterson,  together  with  my  treatment, 
the  symptoms  and  the  progress  of  the  case,  were  recorded  in  my  own 
hand  in  my  record  book  at  the  time,  and  the  said  book,  with  the  said 
entries  made  in  February  and  August,  1866,  is  now  in  my  possession. 

I  have,  of  course,  no  personal  feeling  in  this  matter.  In  response  to 
many  requests  for  a  statement,  I  make  this  affidavit  because  I  am  assured 
it  is  wanted  to  perpetuate  the  testimony  that  can  now  be  obtained,  and 
be  used  only  for  a  good  purpose.  I  regard  it  as  a  duty  which  I  owe 
to  posterity  to  make  public  this  particular  episode  in  the  life  of  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy. 

AiviN   M.   Gushing. 

On  this  second  day  of  January,  in  the  year  one  thousand,  nine  hundred 
and  seven,  at  the  City  of  Spring-field,  Massachusetts,  personally  appeared 
before  me,  Alvin  M.  Gushing,  M.D.,  to  me  personally  known,  and  made 
oath  that  he  had  read  over  the  foregoing  statement,  and  knows  the  contents 
thereof,  and  that  the  same  are  true;  and  he,  thereupon,  in  my  presence, 
did  sign  his  name  at  the  end  of  said  statements,  and  at  the  foot  of  each 
of  the  three  preceding  pages  thereof. 

Raymond  A.  Btowell,  Notary  Public. 

It  will  be  noted  that  although  Mrs.  Eddy's  revelation  and 
miraculous  recovery  occurred  on  February  third,  Dr.  Gushing 
visited  her  professionally  three  times  after  she  had  been  re- 
stored to  health  by  divine  power.  Dr.  Gushing  says  that  he 
visited  her  on  the  third  day — when,  writes  Mrs,  Eddy,  she 
had  her  miraculous  recovery ;  and  also  two  days  later.  In 
August,  seven  months  after  her  discovery  of  Ghristian  Science, 
he  was  called  in  to  treat  her  for  a  cough,  and  made  four  pro- 
fessional visits  during  that  month. 

Quimby's  adherents  believe  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  contra- 
dictory statements  invalidate  her  claims  that  God  miraculously 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  87 

revealed  to  her  the  principle  of  Christian  Science.  They  assert 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  can  clearly  prove  that  she  ob- 
tained the  basic  ideas  of  her  system  from  Phineas  P.  Quimby. 
They  can  prove  their  contention,  they  add,  from  the  sworn 
testimony  of  many  reputable  witnesses.  They  do  not  rely, 
liowever,  chiefly  upon  personal  testimony.  They  put  forth  as 
the  chief  witness  against  Mrs.  Eddy,  Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  They 
seek  to  disprove  practically  all  her  later  statements  regarding 
Quimby  by  quoting  from  her  own  admitted  writings  and  from 
letters. 

They  assert  that  Mrs.  Eddy  obtained  from  Quimby,  not 
only  her  ideas,  but  the  very  name  of  her  new  religion.  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself  says  that  in  1866  she  named  her  discovery  Chris- 
tian Science.  Quimby,  however,  called  his  theory  Christian 
Science  at  least  as  early  as  1863.  In  a  manuscript  written 
in  that  year,  entitled  "  Aristocracy  and  Democracy,"  he  used 
these  identical  words.  In  the  main,  however,  Quimby  called 
his  theory  the  "  Science  of  Health  and  Happiness,"  the  "  Science 
of  Christ,"  and  many  times  simply  "  Science." 


CHAPTER  VI 


^-'c 


THE   QUIMBY   CONTROVERSY   CONTINUED MRS.    EDDY  S   ATTEMPTS 

TO   DISCREDIT    QUIMBY HER   CHARGE   THAT   HE   WAS   ALWAYS 

A    MESMERIST QUIMBy's    ADHERENTS    DEFEND    HIM 


The  controversy  is  chiefly  upon  two  points :  whether  Quimby 
healed  mentally,  through  the  divine  power  of  mind,  or  physic- 
ally, through  mesmerism  or  animal  magnetism ;  and  whether 
he  himself  developed  his  own  theory  and  wrote  his  own  manu- 
scripts or  obtained  his  ideas  from  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mrs.  Eddy, 
when  accused  of  having  appropriated  Quimby's  theories,  has 
always  declared  that  her  system  had  not  the  slightest  similarity 
to  his.  Christian  Scientists  heal  by  the  direct  power  of  God, 
precisely  as  did  Jesus  Himself.  They  regard  mesmerism,  or 
hypnotism,  as  the  supreme  error.  "  Animal  magnetism,"  once 
wrote  the  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin,  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  ad- 
viser, "  is  her  devil.  No  church  can  long  get  on  without  a 
devil,  you  know."  Therefore,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  proves  that  Quimby 
practised  this  art,  and  healed  by  it,  to  her  followers  she  has 
more  than  proved  her  case.  In  Retrospection  and  Introspec- 
tion, she  says  that  Quimby  was  a  "  magnetic  doctor,"  and  im- 
plies that  he  was  a  spiritualist.  "  It  was  in  Massachusetts, 
February,  1866,"  she  says,  "  and  after  tlie  death  of  the  mag- 
netic doctor,  ]\Ir.  P.  P.  Quimby,  Avhom  Spiritualists  would  asso- 
ciate therewith,  but  who   was   in   no-wise   connected  with   this 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  89 

event,  that  I  discovered  the  Science  of  Divine  Metaphysical 
HeaHng,  which  I  afterwards  named  Christian  Science."  This 
idea  she  has  elaborated  many  times.  In  Miscellaneous  Writings 
she  tells  the  story  of  her  visit  to  Quimby  in  these  words : 

About  the  year  1863,  while  the  author  of  this  work  was  at  Dr.  Vail's 
Hydropathic  Institute  in  New  Hampshire,  this  occurred:  A  patient  con- 
sidered incurable  left  that  institution,  and  in  a  few  weeks  returned 
apparently  well,  having  been  healed,  as  he  informed  the  patients,  by  one 
Mr.   P.   P.   Quimby,  of  Portland,   Maine. 

After  much  consultation  among  ourselves,  and  a  struggle  with  pride, 
the  author,  in  company  with  several  other  patients,  left  the  Water  Cure, 
en  route  for  the  aforesaid  doctor  in  Portland.  He  proved  to  be  a  magnetic 
practitioner.  His  treatment  seemed  at  first  to  relieve  her  but  signally 
failed  in  healing  her  case. 

Having  practised  Homeopathy,  it  never  occurred  to  the  author  to  learn 
his  practice,  but  she  did  ask  him  how  manipulation  could  benefit  the  sick. 
He  answered  kindly  and  squarely,  in  substance,  "  Because  it  conveys  elec- 
tricity to  them."  That  was  the  sum  of  what  he  taught  her  of  his  medical 
profession.^ 

In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  June,  1887,  Mrs.  Eddy 
repeats  the  same  idea: 

I  never  heard  him  intimate  that  he  healed  disease  mentally;  and  many 
others  will  testify  that,  up  to  his  last  sickness,  he  treated  us  magnetically, 
manipulating  our  heads,  and  making  passes  in  the  air  while  he  stood  in 
front  of  us.  During  his  treatments  I  felt  like  one  having  hold  of  an 
electric  battery  and  standing  on  an  insulated  stool.  His  healing  was  never 
considered   or   called   anything  but   Mesmerism. 

In  numerous  other  articles,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  declared  that 
Quimby  healed  by  animal  magnetism ;  that  he  never  said  he 
healed  mentally,  never  recognised  the  superiority  of  mind  to 
matter,  or  any  divine  principle  in  his  work.  These  statements, 
however,  hardly  agree  with  that  made  in  the  letter  to  W.  W. 
Wright,  written  in  1871  and  quoted  in  this  chapter,  in  which 

^Miscellaneous   Writings    (1897),  p.   378. 


90  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

she  refers  to  Quimby  as  "  an  old  gentleman  who  had  made  it  a 
research  for  twenty-five  years,  starting  from  the  standpoint 
of  magnetism,  thence  going  forv/ard  and  leaving  that  behind." 
In  the  letter  pubhshed  on  November  7,  1862,  in  the  Portland 
Courier,  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  defended  Quimby  from  the  very 
charge  which  she  now  brings  against  him — that  he  healed  by 
animal  magnetism.     On  this  point,  she  wrote: 

Again,  is  it  by  animal  magnetism  that  lie  heals  the  sick?  Let  us 
examine.  I  have  employed  electro-magnetism  and  animal  magnetism,  and 
for  a  brief  interval  have  felt  relief,  from  the  equilibrium  which  I  fancied 
was  restored  to  an  exhausted  system  or  by  a  diffusion  of  concentrated 
action.  But  in  no  instance  did  I  get  rid  of  a  return  of  all  my  ailments, 
because  I  had  not  been  helped  out  of  the  error  in  which  ojiinions  involved 
us.  My  operator  believed  in  disease,  indejsendent  of  the  mind;  hence  I 
could  not  be  wiser  than  my  master.  But  now  I  can  see  dimly  at  first,  and 
only  as  trees  wallsing,  the  great  principle  which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's 
faith  and  works;  and  just  in  proportion  to  my  right  perception  of  truth 
is  my  recovery.  This  truth  which  he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving  intelli- 
gence to  matter  and  placing  pain  where  it  never  placed  itself,  if  received 
understandingly,  clianges  the  currents  of  the  system  to  their  normal  action; 
and  the  mechanism  of  the  body  goes  on  undisturbed.  That  this  is  a  science 
capable  of  demonstration,  becomes  clear  to  the  minds  of  those  patients  who 
reason  upon  the  process  of  their  cure.  The  truth  which  he  establishes 
in  the  patient  cures  him  (although  he  may  be  wholly  unconscious  thereof)  ; 
and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  liglit,  is  no  longer  in  disease.  .  .  .  After 
all,  this  is  a  very  spiritual  doctrine;  but  the  eternal  years  of  God  are  with 
it,  and  it  must  stand  firm  as  the  rock  of  ages.  And  to  many  a  poor 
sufferer  it  may  be  found,  as  by  me,  "  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a 
weary  land." 

Hardly  anything  could  be  more  specific  than  this. 
In  1862,  Mrs.  Eddy,  while  she  was  still  Quimby's  patient, 
declared  that  he  healed,  not  by  animal  magnetism,  but  by  the 
"  truth  which  he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving  intelligence 
to  matter  and  placing  pain  where  it  never  placed  itself."  Again, 
"  the  truth  which  he  establishes  in  the  patient  cures  him  .  .   . 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  91 

and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  light,  is  no  longer  in  disease." 
In  1871,  while  teaching  and  practising  Quimby's  method 
for  a  livelihood,  she  declared  that  he  started  "  from  the  stand- 
point of  magnetism,  thence  going  forward  and  leaving  that 
behind."  ' 

In  1887,  when  at  the  head  of  a  great  organisation  of  her 
own,  she  says :  "  he  treated  us  magnetically.  .  .  .  His  healing 
was  never  considered  or  called  anything  but  Mesmerism." 

Now  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  Quimby's  method  was  purely 
"  physical  " ;  then,  in  1862,  she  wrote  that,  "  after  all,  this  is 
a  very  spiritual  doctrine,"  and  describes  it  as  "  the  great  prin- 
ciple which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's  faith  and  works."  In  an- 
other communication  to  the  Portland  Courier,  written  November, 
1862,  Mrs.  Eddy  specifically  declared  that  Quimby  healed  after 
Christ's  method.      She  said: 

P.  P.  Quimby  stands  upon  the  plane  of  wisdom  with  his  truth.  Christ 
healed  the  sick,  but  not  by  jugglery  or  with  drugs.  As  the  former  speaks 
as  never  man  before  spake,  and  heals  as  never  man  healed  since  Christ,  is 
he  not  identified  with  truth?  And  is  not  this  the  Christ  which  is  in 
him?  We  know  that  in  wisdom  is  life,  "and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
man."  P.  P.  Quimby  rolls  away  the  stone  from  the  sepulchre  of  error, 
and  health  is  the  resurrection.  But  we  also  know  that  "light  shineth  in 
darkness  and  the  darkness  comprehendeth  it  not." 

Mrs.  Eddy  repeated  the  same  thought  in  the  verses  which 
she  published,  over  her  own  name,  in  a  Lynn  newspaper,  on 
February  22,  1866.  She  entitled  them,  "  Lines  on  the  Death 
of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  Who  Healed  with  the  Truth  that  Christ 
Taught  in  Contradistinction  to  All  Isms."  The  letters  written 
by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  Quimby  in  the  years  1862,  '63,  '64.,  and  '65, 
extracts  from  which  were  printed,  express  the  same  conviction. 
2  See  extract  from  letter  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Wright,  p.  101  of  this  chapter. 


92  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

On  September  14,  1863,  in  asking  for  an  "  absent  treatment," 
Mrs.  Eddy  wrote :  "  I  would  like  to  have  you  in  your  omni- 
presence visit  me  at  eight  o'clock  this  evening."  In  a  letter 
dated  Warren,  May,  1864,  she  writes  that  she  has  been  ill, 
but  adds,  "  I  am  up  and  about  today,  i.e.,  by  the  help  of  the 
Lord  (Quimby)."  In  the  quotation  from  Retrospection  and 
Introspection  above,  Mrs.  Eddy  associates  Quimby  with  spirit- 
ualists. Yet,  forty  years  ago,  she  delivered  a  public  lecture 
to  prove  that  he  was  not  a  spiritualist.  She  records  the  event 
in  a  letter  to  Quimby,  dated  Warren,  April  24,  1864: 

Jesus  taught  as  man  does  not,  who  then  is  wise  but  you?  Posted  at 
the  public  marts  of  this  city  is  this  notice,  Mrs.  M.  M.  Patterson  will 
lecture  at  the  Town  Hall  on  P.  P.  Quimby's  Spiritual  Science  healing 
disease,  as  opposed  to  Deism  or   Rochester   Happing  Spiritualism. 

Quimby's  manuscripts,  his  defenders  assert,  clearly  show  that 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  knew  him  he  had  dropped  mesmerism  for  his 
new  system.  In  1859 — three  years  before  he  ever  saw  Mrs. 
Eddy — he  clearly  distinguished  between  physical  and  spiritual 
heahng — between  the  permanent  healing  of  disease  through 
God,  Wisdom,  or  the  Christ  method,  and  its  temporary  and 
ineffectual  healing  through  ignorance,  symbolically  called 
Beelzebub. 

The  question  is  asked  me  by  some,  is  the  curing  of  disease  a  science? 
I  answer  yes.  You  may  ask  who  is  the  founder  of  that  science?  I 
answer  Jesus  Christ.  Then  comes  the  question,  what  proof  have  you  that 
it  is  a  science?  Because  Christ  healed  the  sick,  that  of  itself  is  no  proof 
that  he  knew  what  he  was  doing.  If  it  was  done,  it  must  have  been  done 
by  some  law  or  science,  for  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  accident  with 
God,  and  if  Christ  was  God,  he  did  know  what  he  was  doing.  When  he  was 
accused  of  curing  disease  through  Beelzebub  or  ignorance,  he  said.  If  I 
cast  out  devils  or  disease  through  Beelzebub  or  ignorance,  my  kingdom  or 
science  cannot  stand,  but  if  I  cast  out  devils  or  disease  through  a  science 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  93 

or  law,  then  my  kingdom  or  law  will  stand,  for  it  is  not  of  this  world. 
When  others  cast  out  disease  they  cured  by  ignorance,  or  Beelzebub,  and 
there  was  no  science  in  the  cure,  although  an  effect  was  produced,  but 
not  knowing  the  cause,  the  world  was  none  the  wiser  for  their  cures.  At 
another  time  when  told  by  his  disciples,  that  persons  were  casting  out 
devils  in  his  name,  and  they  forbid  them,  he  said,  they  that  are  with  us  are 
not  against  us,  but  they  that  are  not  with  us,  or  are  ignorant  of  the  laws 
of  curing,  scattereth  abroad,  for  the  world  is  none  the  wiser.  There  you 
see,  he  makes  a  difference  between  his  mode  of  curing  and  theirs.  If 
Christ's  cures  were  done  by  the  power  of  God,  and  Christ  was  God,  he 
must  have  known  what  that  power  or  science  was,  and  if  he  did,  he  knew 
the  difference  between  his  science,  and  their  ignorance.  His  science  was 
His  Kingdom,  therefore  it  was  not  of  this  world,  and  theirs  being  of  this 
world,  he  called  it  the  Kingdom  of  Darkness.  To  enter  into  Christ's 
Kingdom,  or  science,  was  to  enter  into  the  laws  of  knowledge,  of  curing 
the  evils  of  this  world  of  darkness.  As  disease  is  an  evil,  it  is  of  this 
world  and  in  this  kingdom  of  darkness.  To  separate  one  world  from 
another,  is  to  separate  life,  the  resurrection  of  one  is  the  destruction  of 
the  other.^ 

Mrs.  Eddy,  to  prove  that  Quimby  was  merely  a  mesmerist, 

emphasises    the    fact   that   he    frequently    rubbed   his   patients' 

heads.     According  to  the  present  Christian  Science  belief,  that 

is  the  cardinal  sin.      Physical  contact  with  the  patient  implies 

that  the  treatment  is  of  this  world;  in  order  that  healing  be 

Divine,  Christ-like,  its  only  instrument  must  be  mind.     On  this 

one  point  the  controversy  has  been  long  and  bitter.     It  figures 

as  conspicuously  in  this  dispute  as  did  the  word  fllioque  in  the 

contentions  of  the  early  Christian  Church.     Mrs.  Eddy,  in  the 

Christian  Science  Journal  of  June,  1887,  says: 

If,  as  Mr.  Dresser  says,  Mr.  Quimby's  theory  (if  he  had  one)  and  practice 
were  like  mine,  purely  mental,  what  need  had  he  of  such  physical  means 
as  wetting  his  hands  in  water  and  rubbing  the  head?  Yet  these  appliances 
he  continued  until  he  ceased  practice;  and  in  his  last  sickness  the  poor 
man  employed  a  homeopathic  physician.  The  Science  of  Mind-healing  would 
lie  lost  by  such  means  and  it  is  a  moral  impossibility  to  understand  or 
to   demonstrate   this   science  through   such   extraneous   aids.     Mr.   Quimby, 

'  From  a  manuscript  written  in  1859. 


94  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

never  to  my  knowledge,  thought  that  matter  was  mhid;  and  he  never 
intimated  to  me  that  he  healed  mentally,  or  by  the  aid  of  mind.  Did  he 
believe  matter  and  mind  to  be  one,  and  then  rub  matter  in  order  to 
convince  the  mind  of  truth?  Which  did  he  manijjulate  with  his  hands, 
matter  or  mind?  Was  Mr.  Quimby's  entire  method  of  treating  the  sick 
intended  to  hoodwink  his  patients? 

Quimby's    followers    freely    admit   that,    on    some    occasions, 

he  dipped  his  hands  in  water  and  rubbed  the  patient's  head. 

They  deny,   however,  that  this   was   an   essential  part  of  the 

cure,     Mr.  Julius  A.  Dresser  explains  the  circumstances  thus : 

Some  may  desire  to  ask,  if  in  his  practice,  he  ever  in  any  way  used 
manipulation.  I  reply  that,  in  treating  a  jjatient,  after  he  had  finished 
his  explanations,  and  the  silent  work,  ivhich  completed  the  treatment,  he 
usually  rubbed  the  head  two  or  three  times,  in  a  brisk  manner,  for  the 
purpose  of  letting  the  patient  see  that  something  was  done.  This  was  a 
measure  of  securing  the  confidence  of  the  patient  at  a  time  when  he  was 
starting  a  new  practice,  and  stood  alone  in  it.  I  knew  him  to  make 
many  and  quick  cures  at  a  distance  sometimes  with  persons  he  never  saw 
at  all.  He  never  considered  the  touch  of  the  hand  as  at  all  necessary; 
but  let  it  be  governed  by  circumstances,  as  was  done  eighteen  hundred 
years    ago.* 

In  Mrs.  Eddy's  early  days,  she  treated  in  precisely  the  same 
way.  As  will  be  described  in  the  next  chapter,  she  lived  in 
several  Massachusetts  towns,  teaching  and  practising  the 
Quimby  cure.  She  always  instructed  her  students,  after  treat- 
ing their  patients  mentally,  to  rub  their  heads.  In  addition, 
Mrs.  Eddy  would  dip  her  hands  in  water  and  lay  them  over 
the  stomach  of  the  patient,  repeating,  as  she  did  this,  the  words : 
"  Peace,  be  still."  Several  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  of  that 
time  are  still  practising,  and  they  still,  in  accordance  with 
her  instructions  of  nearly  forty  years  ago,  manipulate  their 
patients.     It  was   not  until   1872   that  she  learned  that  the 


<  The  True  History  of  Mental  Science,  p.  25. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  95 

practice  was  pernicious.      She  tells  the  story  as  follows,  in  a 
pamphlet,  The  Science  of  Man,  published  in  1876: 

When  we  commenced  this  science,  we  permitted  students  to  manipulate 
the  head,  ignorant  that  it  could  do  harm,  or  hinder  the  power  of  mind 
acting  in  an  opposite  direction,  viz.,  while  the  hands  were  at  work  and 
the  mind  directing  material  action.  We  regret  to  say  it  was  the  sins 
of  a  young  student  that  called  our  attention  to  this  question  for  the  first 
time,  and  placed  it  in  a  new  moral  and  physical  aspect.  By  thorough 
examination  and  tests,  we  learned  manipulation  hinders  instead  of  helps 
mental  healing;  it  also  establishes  a  mesmeric  connection  between  patient 
and  practitioner  that  gives  the  latter  opportunity  and  power  to  govern 
the  thoughts  and  actions  of  his  patients  in  any  direction  he  chooses,  and 
with  error  instead  of  truth.  This  can  injure  the  patients  and  must  always 
prevent  a  scientific  result.  .  .  .  Since  our  discovery  of  this  malpractice 
in  1872,  we  have  never  permitted  a  student  with  our  consent  to  manipulate 
in  the  least,  and  this  process  unlearned  is  utterly  worthless  to  benefit 
the   sick.° 

This  is  an  admission  on  ]Mrs.  Eddy's  part  that,  for  six  years 
after  her  discovery  of  the  "  absolute  principle  of  metaphysical 
healing,"  she  herself  taught  the  method  which  she  now  asserts 
disproves  that  Quimby  ever  healed  by  the  power  of  mind. 
Quimby's  adherents  maintain  that  the  fact  that  during  these 
six  years  she  followed  his  instructions  implicitly  and  rubbed 
her  patients'  heads,  is  merely  another  proof  that  she  obtained 
her  original  conception  of  mental  healing  from  him.  In  Mis- 
cellaneous Writings  Mrs.  Eddy  explains  this  head-rubbing  on 
the  same  ground  as  did  Quimby, — that  is,  that  the  average 
weak  and  doubting  mind  needed  an  outward  sign : 

It  was  after  Mr.  Quimby's  death,  that  I  discovered,  in  1866,  the 
momentous  facts  relating  to  Mind  and  its  superiority  over  matter,  and 
named  my  discovery  Christian  Science.  Yet,  there  remained  the  difficulty 
of  adjusting  in  the  scale  of  Science  a  metaphysical  practice,  and  settling 
the  question.  What   shall  be   the  outward   sign   of  such  a  practice:  if  a 

°P.   12. 


96  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Divine  Principle  alone  heals,  what  is  the  human  modus  for  demonstrating 
this?  .  .  .  My  students  at  first  practised  in  slightly  diflFerent  forms. 
Although  /  could  heal  mentally,  without  a  sign  save  the  immediate  recovery 
of  the  sick,  my  students'  patients,  and  people  generally,  called  for  a  sign— 
a  material  evidence  wherewith  to  satisfy  the  sick  that  something  was  lieing 
done  for  them;  and  I  said,  "  Suifer  it  to  be  so  now,"  for  thus  saith  our 
Master.  Experience,  however,  taught  me  the  impossibility  of  demonstrat- 
ing the  Science  of  Metaphysical  Healing  by  any  outward  form  of  practice.^ 

Other  pupils  of  Quimby,  among  them  Mr.  Juhus  A.  Dresser, 
resented  his  being  presented  to  the  world  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  a 
mesmerist  and  magnetic  healer.  They  asserted  again  and  again 
that  he  healed  by  mental  science  purely,  and  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  misrepresented  him  and  his  methods.  Mr.  Dresser  made 
a  statement  to  that  effect  in  the  Boston  Post,  February  24, 
1883.  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  to  this  letter  (Boston  Post,  March  7, 
1883),  admitting  that  Quimby  "  may  have  had  a  theory  in 
advance  of  his  method,"  but  making  the  claim  that  it  was  she 
who  first  asked  him  to  "  write  his  thoughts  out,"  and  that  she 
would  sometimes  so  transform  his  manuscripts  that  they  were 
virtually  her  own  compositions.      She  says: 

We  never  were  a  student  of  Dr.  Quimby's.  .  .  .  Dr.  Quimby  never 
had  students,  to  our  knowledge.  He  was  an  Humanitarian,  but  a  very 
unlearned  man.  He  never  published  a  work  in  his  life;  was  not  a 
lecturer  or  teacher.  He  was  somewhat  of  a  remarkable  healer,  and  at  the 
time  we  knew  him  he  was  known  as  a  mesmerist.  We  were  one  of  his 
patients.  He  manipulated  his  patients,  but  possibly  back  of  his  practice 
he  may  have  had  a  theory  in  advance  of  his  method.  .  .  .  We  knew  him 
about  twenty  years  ago,  and  aimed  to  help  him.  We  saw  he  was  looking 
in  our  direction,  and  asked  him  to  write  his  thoughts  out.  He  did  so, 
and  then  we  would  take  that  copy  to  correct,  and  sometimes  so  transform 
it  that  he  would  say  it  was  our  composition,  which  it  virtually  was;  but 
we  always  gave  him  back  the  copy  and  sometimes  wrote  his  name  on  the 
back  of  it. 


■Miscellaneous    Writings    (1897),    pp.    379    and    3S0. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  97 

In  a  revised  edition  of  Julius  A.  Dresser's  pamphlet,  The 
True  History  of  Mental  Science,  Mr.  Dresser's  son,  Horatio  W. 
Dresser,  says : 

It  has  frequently  been  claimed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  Quimby's  secretary, 
and  that  she  helped  him  to  formulate  his  ideas.  It  has  also  been  stated 
that  these  manuscripts  were  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings,  left  by  her  in  Portland; 
that  the  articles  printed  in  this  pamphlet  were  Mrs.  Eddy's  words,  as 
nearly  as  she  can  recollect  them  (Christian  Science  Sentinel,  February  16, 
1899).  There  is  absolutely  no  truth  in  any  of  these  statements  or  suppo- 
sitions. Mrs.  Eddy  never  saw  a  page  of  the  original  manuscripts;  and 
Volume  I,  loaned  her  by  my  father  in  1862,  was  his  cojry  from  a  copy. 
Mrs.  Eddy  may  have  made  a  cojiy  of  this  .volume  for  her  own  use,  but 
the  majority  even  of  the  copied  articles  Mrs.  Eddy  never  saw.  I  have 
read  and  copied  all  of  these  articles,  and  can  certify  that  they  contain 
a  very  original  and  complete  statement  of  the  data  and  theory  of  mental 
healing.  There  are  over  eight  hundred  closely  written  pages,  covering 
one  hundred  and  twenty  subjects,  written  previous  to  March,  1862,  more 
than  six  months  before  Mrs.  Eddy  went  to  Dr.  Quimby. 

In  the  1884  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy,  writing 
of  Quimby,  says: 

The  old  gentleman  to  whom  we  have  referred  had  some  very  advanced 
views  on  healing,  but  he  was  not  avowedly  religious  neither  scholarly. 
We  interchanged  thoughts  on  the  subject  of  healing  the  sick.  I  restored 
some  patients  of  his  that  he  failed  to  heal,  and  left  in  his  possession  some 
manuscripts  of  mine  containing  corrections  of  his  desultory  pennings 
which  I  am  informed,  at  his  decease,  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  patient 
of  his,  .now  residing  in  Scotland.  He  died  in  1865  and  left  no  published 
works.  The  only  manuscript  that  we  ever  held  of  his,  longer  than  to 
correct  it,  was  one  of  perhaps  a  dozen  pages,  most  of  which  we  had 
composed. 

This  manuscript  of  "  perhaps  a  dozen  pages,"  is  clearly  the 
one  called  by  Quimby,  Questions  and  Answers.  The  original 
copy,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  writer,  in  the  handwriting 
of  Quimby's  wife,  is  dated  February,  1862,  eight  months  before 


98  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Quimbj  had  ever  seen  Mrs.  Eddy.  From  this  manuscript  Mrs. 
Eddy  taught  for  several  years  after  Quimby's  death,  and  she 
sold  copies  of  it  to  her  early  students  for  $300  each.^  Its 
history  will  be  given  in  detail  and  its  contents  analysed  in  the 
next  chapter. 

In  refutation  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  general  assertion  that  she 
herself  taught  Quimby  what  he  knew  about  mental  science, 
and  that  she  corrected  and  so  largely  contributed  to  the  Quimby 
manuscripts,  Quimby's  defenders  again  quote  Mrs.  Eddy  herself. 
They  once  more  draw  upon  her  early  letter  to  the  Portland 
Courier.  This,  they  say,  does  not  read  like  a  letter  written 
by  master  to  pupil.  If  Mrs.  Eddy  were  the  teacher  and  Quimby 
the  student,  would  she,  they  ask,  speak  of  him  in  this  wise? 
"  Now,  then,  his  works  are  but  the  result  of  superior  wisdom, 
which  can  demonstrate  a  science  not  understood.  .  .  .  But  now 
I  can  see  dimly  at  first,  and  only  as  trees  walking,  the  great 
principle  which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's  faith  and  works;  and 
just  in  proportion  to  my  right  perception  of  truth  is  my 
recovery."  If  Mrs.  Eddy,  they  add,  were  at  that  time  writing 
Quimby's  manuscripts,  would  she,  in  this  same  letter,  have  ex- 
pressed herself  thus : — "  At  present  I  am  too  much  in  error 
to  elucidate  the  truth,  and  can  touch  only  the  keynote  for 
the  master  hand  to  wake  the  harmony.  ...  To  many  a  poor 
sufferer  may  it  be  found,  as  by  me,  '  the  shadow  of  a  great 
rock  in  a  weary  land.'  " 

Mrs.  Eddy's  poem  on  Quimby's  death,  already  quoted,  is 
apparently  the  grateful  tribute  of  pupil  to  teacher.  Its  con- 
cluding lines  ill  sustain  INIrs.  Eddy's  present  position: 

'For    the    $300    Mrs.    Eddy's    students    also    obtained    twelve    lessons    in    the 
Quimby  cure. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  99 

"  Rest    should    reward   him    who   hath   made   us   whole, 
Seeking,  though  tremblers,  where  his  footsteps  trod." 

Her  letters  to  Quimby,  1862-'65,  also  fail  to  substantiate 
this  impression  that  Quimby  was  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  instruc- 
tion. "  I  have  the  utmost  faith  in  your  philosophy,"  she  wrote 
in  1862.     Other  phrases,  scattered  through  the  letters,  read:  * 

"  Dear  doctor,  what  could  I  do  without  you?  ...  I  am 
to  all  who  see  me  a  living  wonder,  and  a  living  monument  of 
your  power.  .  .  .  My  explanation  of  your  curative  principle 
surprises  people.  .  .  .  Who  is  wise  but  you.''  "  She  wrote  from 
Warren,  Me.,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  that  she  had  been  asked 
to  treat  sick  people  after  the  Quimby  method.  She  refuses 
to  do  so,  she  adds,  because  she  considers  that  she  is  still  in 
her  "  pupilage." 

In  connection  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim  that  she  herself  largely 
wrote  the  Quimby  manuscripts,  the  following  extract  from  an 
affidavit  of  Mrs.  Sarah  G.  Crosby  of  Waterville,  Me.,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Mrs.  Eddy  when  she  was  under  Quimby 's 
treatment,  is  also  of  interest : 

I  know  little  of  the  history  of  said  Mrs.  Patterson  between  1866  and 
1877,  when  she  called  me  professionally®  to  Lynn,  in  February,  1877,  a 
few  weeks  after  her  marriage  to  Asa  G.  Eddy,  to  report  a  course  of 
lessons  to  a  class  of  nine  pupils.  She  told  me  she  wished  a  copy  of  these 
lessons  for  Mr.  Eddy  to  study,  that  he,  too,  might  teach  classes.  These 
lectures  were  in  all  material  respects  the  same  as  I  had  myself  been  taught 
by  said  Dr.  Quimby  and  that  Mrs.  Patterson  and  I  had  so  often  discussed, 
and  which  she  had  tried  so  hard  to  make  me  understand  and  adopt  when 
we  were  together  in  Portland  and  later  in  Albion; — the  same  teaching 
about  Truth  and  Error  and  matter  and  disease,  the  same  method  of  curing 
disease  by  Truth  casting  out  Error,  the  same  claim  that  it  was  the  method 


8  For  further  extracts  from  Mrs.  Eddy's   letters  to  Quimby,  see  Chapter  IV. 
°  Mrs.  Crosby  was  an  expert  court  stenographer. 


100        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

adopted  by  Jesus.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  in 
1877,  and  Dr.  Quimby's  teachings  in  18C4  were  substantially  the  same;  in 
fact,  as  I  heard  them  both,  /  know  they  were. 

In  June,  1883,  an  attorney  representing  said  Mrs.  Patterson  came  to  see 
me  at  Waterville,  my  present  home,  and  interviewed  me  regarding  her 
work  with  Dr.  Quimby  in  Portland  in  1864.  I  refused  to  answer  his 
questions  and  he  left,  but  returned  the  next  day  bearing  an  affectionate 
letter  from  said  Mrs.  Patterson.    The  following  is  a  copy  thereof: — 

"  My  deau  Sister, 
Sarah, — 

I  wanted  to  see  you  mj'self  but  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  leave  my 
home  and  so  have  sent  the  bearer  of  this  note  to  see  you  for  me. 

Two  nights  ago  I  had  a  sweet  dream  of  Albert^"  and  the  dear  face 
was  so  familiar,  Oh  how  I  loved  him !  and  in  the  morning  a  thought  popped 
into  my  head  to  ask  Sarah  to  help  me  in  this  very  trying  hour. 

These  are  the  circumstances.  A  student  "of  my  husband's  took  the  class- 
book  of  mine  that  he  studied,  put  his  name  to  most  of  it,  and  published 
it  as  his  own  after  he  was  through  with  the  class. 

Then  was  the  time  I  ought  to  have  sued  him,  but  Oh,  I  do  so  dislike 
a  quarrel  that  I  hoped  to  get  over  it  without  a  law-suit. 

So  I  noticed  in  my  next  edition  of  '  Science  and  Health '  his  infringe- 
ment with  a  sharp  reprimand  thinking  that  would  stop  him,  but  this  winter 
he  issued  another  copy  of  my  work  as  the  author,  and  then  I  sued  him. 
The  next  thing  he  did  was  to  publish  the  falsehood  that  I  stole  my  works 
from  the  late  Dr.  Quimby.  When  everything  I  ever  had  published  has  been 
written  or  edited  by  me  as  spontaneously  as  I  teach  or  lecture. 


"  It  will  be  rememberpd  that  the  "  spirit "  friendship  of  Mrs.  Patterson's 
dead  brother,  Albert  Baker,  for  Mrs.  Crosby,  formed  a  close  bond  iu  the 
friendship  of  the  two  women,  and  that  he  communicated  mth  Mrs.  Crosby 
throuj^h    his   sister. — See   Chapter    IV. 

"  In  the  early  '80's,  Edward  J.  Arens  published  a  pamphlet  entitled  Old 
Theolof/tj  in  its  Application  to  the  Henlitu;  of  the  Sick;  the  Redemption  of 
Man  from  the  Bondage  of  8in  and  Death,  and  His  Restoration  to  an  In- 
heritance of  Ererlastitiy  Life.  In  this  Arens  borrowed  liberally,  in  word  and 
idea,  from  Science  and  Health.  In  1883  Mrs.  Eddy  sued  Arens  for  infringe- 
ment of  copyright.  Arens  said,  in  defence,  that  he  had  not  borrowed  from 
Mrs.  Eddy,  but  from  the  late  P.  P.  Quimby,  of  Portland,  Me.  He  added 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  herself  appropriated  Quimby's  ideas, — in  other  words, 
that  both  had  drawn  their  philosophy  from  the  same  source.  The  court 
decided  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  favour,  and  issued  a  perpetual  injunction  restraining 
Arens  from  circulating  his  Itooks.  On  the  strength  of  this  decision  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  her  followers  have  declared  that  the  United  States  courts  have  decided 
the  issue  of  the  Quimby  controversy  in  her  favour.  There  is  nothing  in  this 
decision  contrary  to  the  claims  of  Quimby's  friends.  The  court,  they  agree, 
simply  decided  that  Mrs.  Eddy  held  a  valid  copyright  upon  Science  and  Health 
and  that  Arens  had  violated"  that  copyright.  They  have  never  denied  either 
of  these  facts.  They  freely  admit  that  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  Science  and  Health 
as  it  stands,  and  that  she  has  a  property  interest  in  it.  They  are  not  dis- 
cussing legal  technicalities,  but  only  the  moral  issue  involved, — which,  they  add, 
did  not  and  properly  could  not,  be  considered  by  the  court. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  101 

Now  dear  one,  I  want  you  to  tell  this  man,  the  bearer  of  this  note, 
that  you  know  that  Dr.  Quiraby  and  I  were  friends  and  that  I  used  to 
take  his  scribblings  and  fix  them  over  for  him  and  give  him  my  thoughts 
and  language  which  as  I  understood  it,  were  far  in  advance  of  his. 

Will  you  do  this  and  give  an  affidavit  to  this  eifect  and  greatly  oblige 
your  Affectionate  Sister  Mary." 

I  read  the  foregoing  appeal  for  help  from  said  Mrs.  Patterson,  then 
Eddy,  and  as  it  was  clearly  a  request  that  I  should  make  oath  to  what 
was  not  true,  I  informed  the  attorney  that  I  should  not  make  the 
affidavit  asked  by  his  client,  as  it  would  not  be  a  true  statement.  He 
then  threatened  to  summon  me  to  the  trial,  but  I  think  I  made  him 
understand  that  I  would  not  be  a  desirable  witness  on  his  side  of  the  case. 
He  thereupon  departed,  and  I  was  not  summoned  to  testify.  And  since 
that  interview,  I  have  only  a  public  knowledge  of  said  Mrs.  Patterson-Eddy. 

In  her  private  correspondence,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  said,   in   so 

many  words,  that  she  taught  the  Quimby  system.     Reference 

has  already  been  made  to  the  correspondence  in  March,  1871, 

between  Mrs.  Eddy — then  Mrs.  Glover — and  Mr.  W.  W.  Wright 

of  Lynn.     Mr.  Wright  specifically  asked  this  question : 

6th:  Has  this  theory  ever  been  advertised  or  practised  before  you 
introduced  it,  or  by  any  other  individual? 

To  this  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  : 

6th:  Never  advertised,  and  practised  by  only  one  individual  who  healed 
me.  Dr.  Quiraby  of  Portland,  Me,  an  old  gentleman  who  had  made  it  a 
research  for  twenty-five  years,  starting  from  the  stand-point  of  magnetism 
thence  going  forward  and  leaving  that  behind.  I  discovered  the  art  in 
a  moment's  time,  and  he  acknowledged  it  to  me;  he  died  shortly  after 
and  since  then,  eight  years,  I  have  been  founding  and  demonstrating 
the  science.  .  .  .  please  preserve  this,  and  if  you  become  my  student 
call  me  to  account  for  the  truth  of  what  I  have  written 

Respectfully 

M  M  B  Glover 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  never  attempted  to  reconcile  the  statements 
which  she  made  before  the  publication  of  Science  and  Health 
with  the  very  different  ones  which  she  has  made  since. 


102        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  explanation  by  which  she  seeks  to  account  for  her  early 
expressions  of  devotion  and  gratitude  to  Quimby  is  not  one 
which  tends  to  lessen  the  perplexities  of  the  historian.  She 
simply  asserts  that  she  wrote  these  tributes  to  Quimby  while 
under  mesmeric  influence  and  is  not  properly  responsible  for 
them  at  all. 

In  the  Boston  Post,  in  a  letter  dated  March  7,  1883,  after 
Julius  A.  Dresser  had  made  public  some  of  the  letters  already 
quoted,  she  wrote  as  follows: 

Did  I  write  those  articles  purporting  to  be  mine?  I  might  have  written 
them  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  for  I  was  under  the  mesmeric  treatment 
of  Dr.  Quimby  from  1862  until  his  death  in  1865.  He  was  illiterate 
and  I  knew  nothing  then  of  the  Science  of  Mind-healing,  and  I  was  as 
ignorant  of  mesmerism  as  Eve  before  she  was  taught  bj^  the  serpent. 
Mind  Science  was  unknown  to  me;  and  my  head  was  so  turned  bj'  animal 
magnetism  and  will-power,  under  his  treatment,  that  I  might  have  written 
something  as  hopelessly  incorrect  as  the  articles  now  published  in  the 
Dresser  pamphlet.  I  was  not  healed  until  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Quimby; 
and  then  healing  came  as  the  result  of  my  discovery  in  1866,  of  the  Science 
of    Mind-healing,    since    named    Christian    Science. 

In  1887,  when  Julius  A.  Dresser  published  his  True  History 
of  Mental  Science,  the  Quimby-Eddy  controversy  reached  its 
climax.  Mrs.  Eddy,  says  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  requested  her 
literary  adviser,  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin,  to  answer  the 
pamphlet.  Mr.  Wiggin  asked  Mrs.  Eddy  if  she  had  written 
the  letters  in  the  Portland  newspapers,  the  letter  to  Dresser, 
the  poem  on  Quimby's  death,  and  other  effusions.  Mrs.  Eddy 
admitted  that  she  had.  "  Then,"  replied  Mr.  Wiggin,  "  there 
is  nothing  to  say,"  and  declined  the  task.  In  a  personal  letter 
Mr.  Wiggin  says : 

What  Mrs.  Eddy  has,  as  documents  clearly  prove,  she  got  from  P.  P. 
Quimby,  of  Portland,   JNIe.,  whom   she  eulogised   after  death   as  the   great 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  103 

leader  and  her  special  teacher.  .  .  .  She  has  tried  to  answer  this  charge 
of  the  adoption  of  Quimby's  ideas,  and  called  me  in  to  counsel  her 
about  it;  but  her  only  answer  (in  print!)  was  that  if  she  said  such  things 
twenty  years  ago,  she  must  have  been  under  the  influence  of  Animal 
Magnetism. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  issued  the  following  challenge: 

To    WHOM     IT    MAY    CONCERN: 

Mr.  George  A.  Quimby  son  of  the  late  Phineas  P.  Quimby,  over  his 
own  signature  and  before  witnesses,  stated  in  1883,  that  he  had  in  his 
possession  at  that  time  all  the  manuscript  that  had  been  written  by  his 
father.  And  I  hereby  declare  that  to  expose  the  falsehood  of  parties 
publicly  intimating  that  I  have  ajDpropriated  matter  belonging  to  the 
aforesaid  Quimby,  I  will  pay  the  cost  of  printing  and  publishing  the 
first  edition   of  those  manuscripts  with  the   author's   name: 

Provided,  that  I  am  alloived  first  to  examine  said  manuscripts,  and  do 
find  that  they  were  his  oion  compositions,  and  not  mine,  that  were  left 
with  him,  many  years  ago,  or  that  they  have  not  since  his  death,  in  1865, 
been  stolen  from  my  published  works.  Also  that  I  am  given  the  right 
to  bring  out  this  one  edition  under  the  copyright  of  the  owner  of  said 
manuscripts,  and  all  the  money  accruing  from  the  sales  of  said  book 
shall  be  paid  to  said  owner.  Some  of  his  purported  writings,  quoted  by 
Mr.  D— ,  were  my  own  words  as  near  as  I  can  recollect  them. 

There  is  a  great  demand  for  my  work,  "  Science  and  Health,  with 
Key  to  Scriptures,"  hence  Mr.  D — 's  excuse  for  the  delay  to  publish 
Quimby's  manuscripts  namely,  that  this  period  is  not  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened to  be  benefited  by  them  (?)  is  lost,  for  if  I  have  copied  from 
Quimby,  and  my  book  is  accepted,  it  has  created  a  demand  for  his. 

Mary   Baker   G.   Eddy. 

This  proposition  was  ignored  by  Mr.  Quimby,  owing  to  liis 
own  knowledge  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  of  his  father's  manuscripts. 
Quimby's  adherents  declare  that  the  provisions  made  in  her 
offer  indicate  what  her  claims  would  have  been  if  the  manu- 
scripts had  been  given  into  her  hands — as  she  had  already 
announced  that  Dr.  Quimby's  writings  were  her  own — and  that 
the  proposition  was  made  with  the  object  of  securing  possession 
of  the  manuscripts. 


104.  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  A.  J.  Swartz,  a  mental  healer  of  Chicago 
who  interested  himself  in  the  case,  dated  February  22,  1888, 
George  A.  Quimbj  explained  his  position: 

Your  letter  with  enclosure  at  hand.  I  judge  that  you  offer  to  defend 
the  memory  of  my  father,  the  late  P.  P.  Quimby.  .  .  .  Please  permit 
me  to  say  that  I  have  no  doubt  of  your  kind  intention  to  come  to  the 
rescue  of  my  father,  but  I  do  not  feel  that  there  is  the  slightest  necessity 
for  it.  ...  If  I  were  in  prison,  in  solitary  confinement  for  life,  I 
should  be  too  busy  to  get  into  any  kind  of  a  discussion  witli  Mrs.  Eddy. 

I   have   my    father's   manuscripts   in   my   possession,   but   will   not   allow 

them  to  be  copied  nor  to  go  out  of  my  hands.     Answering  your  further 

inquiries,  I  have  no  written  article  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  in  my  possession,  have 

never  had,  nor  did  my  father  ever  have,  nor  did  she  ever  leave  any  with 

either  of  us.     Neither  of  us  have  ever  "  stolen "  any  of  her  writings  nor 

anything  else.     In  fact,  we  both  have  been  able  to  make  a  living  without 

stealing.    .    .    . 

Yours  truly, 

George  A.  Quimby. 

From  the  history  of  this  controversy,  it  is  evident  that,  for 
Mrs.  Eddy,  there  have  existed  two  Phineas  P.  Quimbys :  one 
the  Quimby  who  was  her  physician  and  teacher,  who  roused  her 
from  the  fretful  discontent  of  middle-age,  and  who  gave  her 
purpose  and  aspiration ;  the  other  the  Quimby  who,  after  the 
publication  of  Science  and  Health,  became,  in  a  sense,  her 
rival, — ^whom  she  saw  as  an  antagonist  threatening  to  invalidate 
her  claims.  If  she  has  been  a  loser  through  this  controversy, 
it  is  not  because  of  what  she  borrowed  from  Quimby,  but  because 
of  her  later  unwillingness  to  admit  her  obligation  to  him.  Had 
she  observed  the  etiquette  of  the  regular  sciences,  where  personal 
ambition  is  subsidiary  to  a  desire  for  tinith,  and  where  dis- 
coverers and  investigators  are  scrupulous  to  acknowledge  the 
sources  from  which  they  have  obtained  help,  it  would  have 
strengthened  rather  than  weakened  her  position. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DR.    AND    MRS.    PATTERSON    IN    LYNN THEIR    SEPARATION MRS. 

PATTERSON     AS     A     PROFESSIONAL     VISITOR SHE     TEACHES 

HIRAM    CRAFTS   THE    QUIMBY   "  SCIENCE  " MRS.    PATTERSON 

IN   AMESBURY 

Although  after  Mrs.  Eddy's  second  visit  to  Quimby  in  the 
early  part  of  1864  she  always  desired  to  teach  his  doctrines 
and  could  think  and  talk  of  little  else,  it  was  not  until  1870 
that  she  was  able  to  establish  herself  as  a  teacher  of  metaphysical 
healing.  The  six  years  intervening  are  important  chiefly  as 
the  period  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  novitiate.  During  that  time  she 
drifted  from  one  to  another  of  half  a  dozen  little  towns  about 
Boston ;  but  amid  all  vicissitudes  one  thing  remained  fixed  and 
constant, — her  conviction  that  she  was  the  person  destined  to 
teach  and  popularise  Quimbyism. 

Mrs.  Patterson's  long  visit  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosby, 
at  Albion,  Me.,  has  already  been  referred  to  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  the  present  volume.  She  went  to  Mrs.  Crosby's 
house  in  May,  1864,  remaining  there  most  of  the  summer  and 
leaving  in  the  early  autumn.  She  then  rejoined  her  husband, 
Dr.  Patterson,  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  where  the  doctor  had  begun 
to  practise  and  had  taken  an  office  at  76  Union  Street.  In  the 
Lynn  Weekly  Reporter,  of  June  11,  1864,  the  following  ad- 
vertisement appears  for  the  first  time: 

105 


106        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

DENTAL  NOTICE 

Dr.  D.  Patterson 
Would  respectfully  announce  to  the  public  that  he  has  returned  to 
Lynn,  and  opened  an  office  in  B.  F.  &  G.  N.  Spinney's  new  building,  on 
Union  St.,  between  the  Central  Depot  &  Sagamore  Hotel,  where  he  will 
be  happy  to  greet  the  friends  and  patrons  secured  last  year  while  in  the 
offices  of  Drs.  Davis  and  How,  and  now  he  hopes  to  secure  the  patronage 
of  "all  the  rest  of  mankind"  by  the  exhibition  of  that  skill  which  close 
study  and  many  years  of  first-class  and  widely-extended  practice  enable 
him  to  bring  to  the  aid  of  the  suffering.  He  is  aware  that  he  has  to 
compete  with  able  practitioners,  but  yet  offers  his  services  fearlessly, 
knowing  that  competition  is  the  real  stimulus  to  success,  and  trusting  to 
his  ability  to  please  all  who  need  Teeth  filled,  extracted  or  new  sets. 
He  was  the  first  to  introduce  LAUGHING  GAS  in  Lynn  for  Dental 
purposes  and  has  had  excellent  success  with  it.  Terms  lower  than  any- 
where else  for  the  same  quality  of  work. 

Dr.  Patterson  and  his  wife  first  boarded  at  42  Silsbee  Street, 
where  they  remained  for  some  months,  afterward  moving  to  the 
house  of  O.  A.  Durall,  in  BufFum  Street. 

The  doctor's  dental  practice  in  Lynn  was  fairly  good,  and 
people  liked  him  for  a  bluff,  jovial  fellow,  none  too  clever,  but 
honest  and  kind  of  heart.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  at  this 
time  prominent  members  of  the  Linwood  Lodge  of  Good  Tem- 
plars, at  Lynn,  and  old  members  of  the  lodge  remember  the 
active  part  which  Mrs.  Patterson  took  in  their  meetings.  She 
was  often  called  upon  to  read,  or  to  speak  on  matters  under 
discussion,  and  was  always  ready  to  do  so.  Her  remarks  never 
failed  to  command  attention,  and  the  Good  Templars  of  Lynn 
considered  her  "  smart  but  queer."  Members  of  the  lodge  who 
are  still  living  say  that  she  discussed  Quimbyism  whenever  she 
found  opportunity  to  do  so,  and,  although  they  were  con- 
siderably amused  by  her  extravagant  metaphors  and  could  make 
nothing  of  her  "  philosophy,"  they  had  no  doubt  that  it  was 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  107 

very  profound  and  recondite.  It  was  when  she  was  returning 
from  one  of  these  Good  Templar  meetings,  February  1,  1866, 
that  Mrs.  Patterson  had  the  fall  from  the  effects  of  which  she 
says  she  was  miraculously  healed.  She,  with  a  party  of  fellow 
Templars,  was  passing  the  corner  of  Oxford  and  Market  Streets, 
when  she  slipped  upon  the  icy  sidewalk  and  fell.  She  was 
carried  into  the  house  of  Samuel  Bubier,  where  Dr.  Cushing 
attended  her,  and  the  next  day,  at  her  urgent  request,  she 
was  moved  to  the  house  on  the  Swampscott  Road,  Avhere  she 
and  her  husband  were  then  boarding.  It  was  on  the  following 
day,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  account,  that  she  received  her 
revelation,  and  in  this  house  Christian  Science  was  born.  In 
the  following  spring  the  Pattersons  took  a  room  in  the  house 
of  P.  R.  Russell,  at  the  corner  of  Pearl  and  High  Streets,  Lynn. 
Here,  after  about  two  months.  Dr.  Patterson  finally  left  his 
wife,  and  they  never  lived  together  after  this  time.  In  refer- 
ring to  her  husband's  desertion  of  her,  Mrs.  Eddy  says : 

In  1862^  my  name  was  Patterson;  my  husband,  Dr.  Patterson,  a  dis- 
tinguished dentist.  After  our  marriage  I  was  confined  to  my  bed  with  a 
severe  illness,  and  seldom  left  bed  or  room  for  seven  years,  when  I  was 
taken  to  Dr.  Quimby,  and  partially  restored.  I  returned  home,  hoping 
once  more  to  make  that  home  happy,  but  only  returned  to  a  new  agony, — 
to  find  my  husband  had  eloped  with  a  married  woman  from  one  of  the 
wealthy  families  of  that  city,  leaving  no  trace  save  his  last  letter  to  us, 
wherein  he  wrote  "  I  hope  some  time  to  be  worthy  of  so  good  a  wife."  ^ 


1  Letter  to   the  Boston  Post,  March   7,   18S3.  ,^    „ 

^  Prom  Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  it  is  impossible  to  tell  whether  by  that  city 
she  means  Sanbornton  Bridge,  wliere  she  returned  after  her  first  visit  to 
Quimhv,  or  Lvnn,  where  she  joined  her  husband  after  her  second  visit.  Neither 
in  Lvnn  nor  Sanbornton  Bridge  do  the  people  who  knew  the  Pattersons  recall 
any  elopement  on  Dr.  Patterson's  part.  1'.  R.  Russell,  in  whose  house  the 
Pattersons  were  living  when  the  Doctor  deserted  his  wife,  says  in  his  affidavit : 
"While  they  were' living  at  my  house.  Dr.  Patterson  went  away  and  did 
not  return.  I  do  not  know  the  cause  of  his  going.  I  never  heard  that  he 
eloped  with  any  woman,  and  I  never  hoard  Mrs.  Patterson  say  that  he  had 
eloped  with  any  woman.  Mrs.  Patterson  never  said  anything  whatever  to  me 
on  the  subject  of  her  husband's  departure.  I  never  heard  anything  against 
Dr.   Patterson's   character   either   then   or  since." 


108        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

After  leaving  his  wife,  Dr.  Patterson  went  to  Littleton,  N.  H., 
where  he  practised  for  some  years.  Afterward  he  led  a  roving 
life,  wandering  from  town  to  town,  until  he  at  last  went  back 
to  the  home  of  his  boyhood,  at  Saco,  Me.,  where  he  secluded 
himself  and  lived  the  life  of  a  hermit  until  his  death  in  1896. 

Bitter  experience  awaited  Mrs.  Patterson  after  her  husband's 
desertion.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  for  his  leaving, 
Mrs.  Patterson  did  not,  at  that  time,  claim  the  sympathy  of 
her  friends  on  account  of  it,  and  to  her  landlord  and  his  wife 
she  maintained  silence  on  the  subject,  merely  saying  in  answer 
to  inquiries,  that  he  had  gone  away.  According  to  Mrs.  Patter- 
son's relatives,  her  husband  went  about  the  separation  deliber- 
ately, announcing  his  intention  and  his  reason  ^  to  her  family, 
and  making  what  provision  he  was  able  for  her  support.^ 

In  the  fall  of  1865  Mark  Baker,  Mrs.  Patterson's  father, 
died,  and  at  about  the  same  time  her  sister,  Mrs.  Tilton,  closed 
her  door  forever  against  Mrs.  Patterson.^  Her  only  child, 
George  Glover,  at  that  time  a  young  man,  she  had  sent  away 
in  his  childhood.  Mrs.  Patterson  was,  therefore,  for  the  first 
time  in  her  life,  practically  alone  in  the  world  and  largely 
dependent  upon  herself  for  support.  Untrained  in  any  kind 
of  paid  work,  she  fell  back  upon  the  favour  of  her  friends 
or  chance  acquaintances,  living  precariously  upon  their  bounty, 
and  obliged  to  go  from  house  to  house,  as   one  family  after 

*  To  her  family  Dr.  Patterson  said  that  he  was  unable  to  endure  life  with 
Mrs.   Patterson  any  longer. 

*  For  several  years  after  their  separation  Dr.  Patterson  gave  his  wife  an 
annuity  of  $200,  which  was  paid  in  small  instalments. 

=  When  Mrs.  Tilton,  who  had  taken  care  of  Mrs.  Patterson  from  childhood 
and  supported  her  in  her  widowhood,  finally  turned  against  her  sister,  she 
was  as  hard  as  she  had  been  generous  before.  "  I  loved  Mary  best  of  all 
my  sisters  and  brothers,"  she  said  to  her  friends,  "  but  it  is  all  gone  now." 
The  bitterness  of  her  feeling  lasted  to  the  day  of  her  death.  She  instructed 
her  family  not  to  allow  Mary  to  see  her  after  death  nor  to  attend  her 
funeral,   and  her  wishes  were   carried  out. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  109 

another  wearied  of  her.  For  a  while  she  stayed  on  at  the 
Russells',  but  as  she  was  unable  to  pay  even  the  $1.50  a  week 
rental  which  they  charged  her,  she  was  served  with  eviction 
papers  and  dispossessed  of  her  room  within  a  month  after 
Dr.  Patterson's  departure.  Mr.  Russell,  her  landlord,  says  that 
the  matter  of  the  rent  was  merely  a  pretext.  He  wished  Mrs. 
Patterson  to  go  because  his  wife,  who  had  greatly  admired  her 
when  she  first  came  into  the  house,  soon  declared  that  she  could 
not  endure  Mrs.  Patterson's  remaining  there.  His  father.  Rev. 
P.  R.  Russell,  also  strongly  objected  to  Mrs.  Patterson's  pres- 
ence. 

The  month  of  August,  or  a  part  of  it,  Mrs.  Patterson  spent 
with  Mrs.  Clark,  in  Summer  Street,  Lynn,  and  it  was  there  that 
Dr.  Cushing  treated  her  for  a  severe  cough.  She  next  stayed 
with  Mrs.  Armenius  Newhall,  but  soon  afterward  left  the  house, 
at  Mrs.  Newhall's  request. 

Mrs.  James  Wheeler  of  Swampscott,  in  her  own  town  known 
as  "  Mother  "  Wheeler  from  her  gentle  qualities  and  her  eager- 
ness to  help  and  comfort  every  one,  then  offered  Mrs.  Patterson 
a  shelter. 

At  the  Wheelers',  as  elsewhere,  Mrs.  Patterson  talked  con- 
tinually of  Quimby  and  declared  that  it  was  the  ambition  of 
her  life  to  publish  his  notes  on  mental  healing.  Mrs.  Julia 
Russell  Walcott,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Patterson's  former  landlord, 
and  an  intimate  friend  of  Mrs.  Wheeler,  says  in  her  affidavit: 

Mrs.  Patterson  was  the  means  of  creating  discord  in  the  Wheeler 
family.  She  was  unkind  in  her  language  to  and  treatment  of  Mrs.  James 
Wheeler,  at  the  same  time  exacting  extra  personal  service  and  attention  to 
her   daily   wants. 

One   morning   I   sat   in   the   parlour   at   the  Wheeler  house   when   Mrs. 


110        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Patterson  came  down  to  breakfast.  The  family  breakfast  was  over,  but 
Mrs.  Wheeler,  according  to  her  usual  custom,  had  prepared  a  late  breakfast 
for  Mrs.  Patterson.  Mrs.  Wheeler,  Mrs.  Patterson,  and  myself  were  alone 
in  the  house.  I  had  come  in  late  the  previous  evening  and  ]Mrs.  Patterson 
did  not  know  of  my  presence  in  the  house.  She  entered  the  breakfast 
room  from  the  hail,  and  began  at  once,  and  without  any  apparent  cause, 
to  talk  to  Mrs.  Wheeler  in  a  most  abusive  manner,  using  violent  and 
Insulting   language. 

I  immediately  went  into  the  breakfast  room  and  commanded  her  to  stop, 
which  she  did  at  once.  I  indignantly  rebuked  Mrs.  Patterson  and  in- 
formed her  that  I  should  tell  Mrs.  Wheeler's  family  of  her  conduct. 

Mrs.  Wheeler  did  not  respond  to  Mrs.  Patterson.  To  me  she  said, 
"  Thank  God,  Julia,  that  you  were  here,  this  time.  I  have  often  borne 
this." 

Mrs.  Patterson  was,  soon  after  this,  requested  to  leave  the  Wheeler 
house,  and  did  so.  Mrs.  Wheeler  received  nothing  in  payment  for  Mrs. 
Patterson's  board.  When  Mrs.  Wheeler  asked  Mrs.  Patterson  for  a  settle- 
ment, Mrs.  Patterson  replied  to  the  effect  that  she  had  "  treated  "  a  wounded 
finger  for  Mr.  Wheeler  and  that  this  service  was  equivalent  to  what  she 
had  received   from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wheeler,  in  board,  lodging,  etc. 

Upon  leaving  the  Wheelers,  Mrs.  Patterson  took  refuge  with 
the  Ellis  family.  Mrs.  Mary  Ellis  lived  at  Elm  Cottage, 
Swampscott,  with  her  unmarried  son,  Fred  Ellis,  master  of  a 
boys'  school  in  Boston.  Both  she  and  her  son  were  cultivated 
persons,  and  they  felt  a  certain  sympathy  with  Mrs.  Patterson's 
literary  labours.  Wherever  she  went,  Mrs.  Patterson  was  pre- 
ceded by  the  legend  that  she  was  writing  a  book.  During 
\  the  time  which  she  spent  with  Mrs.  Ellis,  she  remained  in  her 
room  the  greater  part  of  each  day,  working  upon  the  manu- 
script which  eight  years  later  was  to  be  published  under  the 
title.  Science  and  Health.  In  the  evening  she  often  joined 
Mr.  Ellis  and  his  mother  downstairs,  and  read  them  what  she 
had  written  during  the  day,  telling  them  of  Dr.  Quimby  and 
his  theories  of  mind  and  matter,  and  explaining  how  she  meant 
to  develop  them. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  111 

While  in  Ljnn  Mrs,  Patterson  continued  to  take  an  interest 
in  Spiritualism.  The  older  Spiritualists  of  Lynn  remember 
her  taking  part  as  a  medium  in  a  circle  which  met  at  the  home 
of  Mrs.  George  Clark  in  Summer  Street.  Mrs.  Richard  Hazel- 
tine  says : ^ 

My  husband,  Richard  Hazeltine,  and  I  went  to  the  circle  at  Mrs.  Clarli's 
and  saw  Mrs.  Glover '  pass  into  the  trance  state,  and  heard  her  com- 
municate by  word  of  mouth  messages  received  from  the  spirit  world, 
or  what  she  said  and  we  believed  were  messages  from  the  spirit  world. 
I  cannot  forget  certain  peculiar  features  of  these  sittings  of  Mrs.  Glover's. 
Mrs.  Glover  told  us,  as  we  were  gathered  there,  that,  because  of  her 
superior  spiritual  quality,  and  because  of  the  purity  of  her  life,  she  could 
only  be  controlled  in  the  spirit  world  by  one  of  the  Apostles  and  by  Jesus 
Christ.  When  she  went  into  the  trance  state  and  gave  her  communications 
to  members  of  the  circle,  these  communications  were  said  by  Mrs.  Glover  to 
come,  through  her  as  a  medium,  from  the  spirit  of  one  of  the  Apostles  or 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Mrs.  Mary  Gould,  a  Spiritualist  medium  In  Lynn,  remembers 
that  at  one  time  Abraham  Lincoln  was  one  of  Mrs.  Glover's 
controls. 

In  the  winter  of  1866-67  Mrs.  Patterson  met  Hiram  Crafts 
at  a  boarding-house  in  Lynn.  Crafts  was  a  shoe-worker  of  East 
Stoughton,  who  had  come  to  Lynn  to  work  in  a  shoe  factory 
there  for  the  winter.  Mrs.  Patterson  tried  to  interest  every 
one  she  met  in  Quimby's  theories  and  saw  in  the  serious  shoe- 
maker a  prospective  pupil.  What  she  told  Crafts  of  this  new 
system  of  doctoring  appealed  to  him  strongly;  he  was  a  Spirit- 
ualist and  was  deeply  interested  in  psychic  phenomena.  After 
he  returned  home,  he  sent  for  Mrs,  Patterson  to  come  to  East 


«  From    the   affidavit   of  Mrs.    Richard    Hazeltine   of   Lynn. 

'  Althougli    Mrs.    Patterson    did    not    divorce    Dr.    Patterson    until    1873,    she 
resumed  her  former  name  of  Glover  soon  after  he  went  away. 


112        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Stoughton  and  teach  him.  She  joined  the  Crafts,  accordhigly, 
in  the  early  part  of  1867,  and  lived  for  some  months  in  their 
home  at  East  Stoughton — now  Avon — instructing  Mr.  Crafts 
in  the  Quimby  method  of  healing.      Early  in  the  spring  Crafts 


rj\ 


O        THE         SICK 


DR.   H.   S.   CRAFTS, 


Would  say  unhesitatingly,  I  can  cure  you.  and 
have  never  failed  to  cure  Consumption,  Catarrh, 
Scrofula,  Dyspepsia  and  Rheumatism,  with 
many  other  forms  of  disease  and  weakness,  in 
which  I  am  especially  successful.  If  you  give 
me  a  fair  trial  and  arc  not  helped,  I  will  re- 
fund your  money. 

The  following  certificate  is  from  a  lady  in 
this  city, 

Mrs.   Raymond  : — 
H.  S.  CRAFTS,  Office  90,  Main  street: 

In  giving  to  the  public  a  statement  of  my 
peculiar  case,  I  am  actuated  by  a  motive  to 
point  out  the  way  to  others  of  relief  from  their 
sufferings.  About  12  years  since  I  had  an 
internal  abscess,  that  not  only  threatened  to 
destroy  my  life  at  that  time,  but  which  has 
ever  since  continued  to  affect  me  in  some  form 
or  another  internally,  making  life  well  nigh  a 
burden  to  bear.  I  have  consulted  many  physi- 
cians, all  of  whom  have  failed  to  relieve  me  of 
this  suffering,  and  in  this  condition,  while  grow- 
ing worse  year  by  year,  about  three  weeks  ago 
I  applied  to  Dr.  H.  S.  Crafts,  who,  to  my  own, 
and  the  utter  astonishment  of  my  friends,  has, 
in  this  incredibly  short  time,  without  medicines 
or  painful  applications,  cured  me  of  this  chronic 
malady.  In  couclusion,  I  can  only  quote  the 
words  of  a  patient  who  was  healed  by  his 
method  of  cure  :  "  I  am  convinced  he  is  a  skill- 
ful Physician,  whose  cures  are  not  the  result 
of  accident."  I  reside  in  Taunton,  at  Weir 
street  Ilaili'oad  Crossing. 

ABIGAIL  RAYMOND. 

Taunton,  May  13,   18G7. — myl4-dT&S&wlm 


An  advertisement  of  Hiram  S.  Crafts,  which  appeared  in  a  Taunton 
newspaper,  May  13,  1867.  Mr.  Crafts  had  moved  from  East  Stoughton 
to  Taunton,  taliifig  his  wife  and   Mrs.   Eddy  with  him. 

went  to  Taunton,  taking  his  wife  and  Mrs.  Patterson  with  him, 
and  opened  an  office.  He  was  the  first  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students 
to  go  into  practice.  His  advertisement  in  a  Taunton  paper  is 
reprinted  herewith.  Mrs.  Patterson  did  not  practise  herself, 
but  remained  with  the  family  to  teach  and  advise  Crafts.     Con- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  113 

cerning  Mrs.  Patterson  and  her  relation  to  the  Crafts,®  Ira 
Hohnes,  brother  of  Mrs.  Crafts,  makes  the  following  affidavit: 
Ira  Holmes,  being  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says : 

I  am  76  years  of  age.  I  reside  in  Stoughton,  Massachusetts.  I  first 
met  Mrs.  Mary  Patterson,  now  known  as  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  of  Concord, 
New  Hampshire,  in  the  year  1867.  She  was  then  living  at  the  home  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Hiram  S.  Crafts  in  East  Stoughton,  which  is  now  called  Avon. 
Mrs.  Hiram  S.  Crafts  is  my  sister,  and  Hiram  S.  Crafts  is  a  brother  of 
my  wife,  Mrs.  Ira  Holmes.  The  two  families  were,  therefore,  intimately 
connected,  and  I  was  acquainted  with  what  occurred  in  the  Crafts  home. 

Hiram  Crafts  and  his  wife,  Mary  Crafts,  told  me  that  they  first  met 
Mary  Patterson  in  a  boarding  house  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  where  Hiram  and 
Mary  Crafts  lived  temporarily  while  Hiram  Crafts  was  working  in  a  Lynn 
shoe  manufactory.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crafts  were  Spiritualists,  and  they  have 
told  me  that  Mrs.  Patterson  represented  to  them  that  she  had  learned  a 
"  science  "  that  was  a  step  in  advance  of  Spiritualism.  She  wished  to  teach 
this  science  to  Hiram  Crafts,  and  after  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crafts  had  returned 
from  Lynn  to  their  home  in  East  Stoughton,  Massachusetts,  Mrs.  Patterson 
came  to  their  home  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  this  new  science  to  Hiram 
Crafts.  I  have  heard  her  say  many  times,  while  she  was  living  at  Crafts' 
that  she  learned  this  science  from  Doctor  Quimby.  I  have  heard  her  say 
these  words:  "I  learned  this  science  from  Dr.  Quimby,  and  I  can  impart 
it  to  but  one  person."  She  always  said  this  in  a  slow,  impressive  manner, 
pronouncing  the  word  "  person "  as  if  it  were  spelled  "  pairson." 

From  my  sister,  Mary  Crafts,  and  her  husband,  Hiram  S.  Crafts,  I 
learned  that  Hiram  Crafts  had  entered  into  an  agreement  with  Mrs. 
Patterson  to  pay  her  a  certain  sum  of  money  for  instructing  him  in 
Quimby's   science. 

After  Hiram  Crafts  had  learned  it,  he  took  some  patients  for  treatment, 
in  East  Stoughton,  but  in  a  short  time  he,  with  Mrs.  Crafts  and  Mrs. 
Patterson,  moved  to  Taunton,  Mass.,  for  the  purpose  of  practising  the 
heahng  system  which  Mrs.  Patterson  had  taught  him.  I  never  knew 
of  Mrs.  Patterson  treating,  or  attempting  to  treat,  any  sick  person.  I 
understood,  from  her  and  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crafts,  that  she  could 
not  practise  this  science,  but  could  teach  it,  and  could  teach  it  to  only 
one  person. 

While  Mrs.  Patterson  lived  in  tlie  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crafts,  she 
caused  trouble  in  the  household,  and  urged  Mr.  Crafts  to  get  a  bill  of 
divorce  from  his  wife,  Mary  Crafts.    The  reason  Mrs.  Patterson  gave  for 

'  Hiram  Crafts  died  last  year.  His  widow  is  now  living  with  a  brother  in 
Brockton,  Mass, 


114        LIFE  OF  I\IARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

urging  Mr.  Crafts  to  divorce  his  wife  was,  that  Mrs.  Crafts  stood  in  the 

way   of   the    success    of    Mr.    Crafts    and    Mrs.    Patterson    in    the    healing 

business.     Mrs.   Crafts,   my   sister,   was   gentle,   kind,   and   patient,   and   in 

no  way  merited  Mrs.  Patterson's  dislike  of  her.     Mrs.  Crafts  waited  upon 

Mrs.    Patterson,    did    the    housework    and    marketing,    and    in    every    way 

sought  to  advance  the  interests  of  her  husband,  Hiram  S.  Crafts.     When 

Mrs.   Crafts   discovered  that   Mrs.   Patterson   was   attempting  to   influence 

Mr.  Crafts  to  apply  for  a  divorce,  she,  my  sister,  Mary  Crafts,  prepared 

to  pack  up  her  possessions  and  to  leave  her  husband's  house.     The  result 

of  this  was  that   Mr.   Crafts  would  not   consent   to  lose  his  wife,   and  as 

Mrs.    Crafts    would    not    remain   unless    Mrs.    Patterson   went    away,    Mrs. 

Patterson  was   obliged   to   leave  the  home  of  Mr.   and   Mrs.   Crafts.     This 

was  while  they  were   residing  in  Taunton,   Mass.     After   Mrs.   Patterson's 

departure,  Mr.  and  Mrs.   Crafts   returned  to  East  Stoughton  to  live,  and 

Hiram  S.   Crafts  no  longer  practised  the  healing  system  taught  by  Mrs. 

Patterson. 

I  make  this   statement   of  my  own   free  will,  solely  in  the  interest  of 

j  ustice. 

Ira  Holmes. 

commonwealth  of  massachusetts 
norfolk,  ss: 

Stoughton,  February  7,  1907. 

Then  personally  appeared  the  above  named  Ira  Holmes  and  acknowledged 

the  foregoing  instrument  by  him  subscribed,  to  be  his  free  act  and  deed, 

before  me. 

Geo.  O.  Wentworth,  Notary  Public. 

Many  years  afterward,  when  the  Crafts  were  living  in  Hebron, 
N.  H.,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  had  retired  to  Concord,  N.  H.,  she  sent 
for  Mr.  Crafts  and  paid  his  expenses  to  Pleasant  View  to 
deliver  into  her  hands  his  copy  of  the  manuscript  which  she 
had  used  in  teaching  him, — probably  a  copy  of  the  Quimby 
manuscript, — which  he  did. 

After  leaving  the  Crafts,  Mrs.  Patterson  seems  to  have 
gone  to  Amesbury  to  the  home  of  Captain  and  Mrs.  Na,thaniel 
Webster.  Concerning  Mrs.  Webster  and  Mrs.  Patterson's  stay 
at  her  house,  Mrs.  Mary  Ellis  Bartlett,  a  granddaughter  of 
Mrs,  Webster,  makes  the  following  affidavit: 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  115 

Mary   Ellis  Bartlett,  being  duly   sworn,   deposes   and  says: 

I  am  35  years  of  age,  and  I  am  a  citizen  of  Boston,  Massachusetts. 
I  am  the  daughter  of  William  R.  Ellis  and  Mary  Jane  Ellis,  and  the 
granddaughter  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Webster  and  Mary  Webster,  who 
for  many  years  resided  in  Amesbury,  Massachusetts.  In  the  years  between 
1865  and  1870  my  grandparents.  Captain  and  Mrs.  Webster,  were  living 
in  Amesbury,  Mass.,  at  what  is  now  No.  5  Merrimac  Street.  Captain 
Webster  was  a  retired  sea  captain,  and  at  that  time  was  superintendent  of 
cotton  mills  in  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  of  which  E.  A.  Straw,  his 
son-in-law,  who  was  later  Governor  of  New  Hampshire,  was  agent  for 
many  years.  My  Grandmother  Webster  was  a  well-known  Spiritualist. 
Grandfather  Webster  was  away  from  home,  attending  to  his  business  in 
Manchester,  much  of  the  time,  returning  home  to  Amesbury  about  once 
in  two  weeks,  to  remain  over  Sunday.  My  grandmother  was,  therefore, 
much  alone,  and  because  of  this,  and  for  the  further  reason  that  she  was 
deeply  interested  in  Spiritualism  in  all  its  forms,  she  had  at  her  house 
constant  visitors  and  charity  patients  who  were  Spiritualists.  Invalids, 
cripples,  and  other  unfortunate  persons  were  made  welcome,  and  my 
grandmother  took  care  of  them  when  they  were  ill  and  lodged  and 
boarded  them  free  of  charge.  She  had,  or  believed  she  had,  spiritual 
communications  in  regard  to  their  various  ailments,  which  she  followed 
in  prescribing  for  them  and  in  her  treatment  of  them.  My  grandmother 
was  what  was  called  a  "  drawing  medium  "  and  a  "  healing  medium."  She 
drew  strange  pictures  under  the  influence  of  the  spirits.  Many  of  these 
pictures  are  now  in  existence,  and  some  of  them  are  in  my  possession, 
having  been  given  to  me  by  my  grandmother. 

Grandmother  Webster  had  a  room  in  her  house  which  was  used  for  spirit- 
ual seances,  and  for  all  grandmother's  spiritistic  work.  This  room  was  on 
the  ground  floor,  situated  in  the  rear  of  the  front  parlour.  It  was  decorated 
in  blue,  according  to  the  direction  of  grandmother's  spirit  control, — blue 
being  a  colour  favoured  by  the  spirits.  The  room  was  furnished  with  the 
usual  chairs,  tables,  couch,  etc.,  but  this  furniture  was  called  by  my 
grandmother  and  her  Spiritualist  friends,  "  spiritual  furniture,"  because 
it  was  used  only  for  spiritual  purposes.  There  was  a  couch  which  grand- 
motlier  called  her  "  spiritual  couch."  She  thought  she  could  sleep  upon 
it  when  she  could  not  sleep  elsewhere.  Upon  it  she  took  her  daytime 
naps,  and  sometimes  during  a  restless  night  she  was  able  to  sleep  if  she 
lay  upon  this  couch.  There  was  a  table  in  the  room  which  was  used  for 
tl'.e  laying  on  of  hands  by  the  Spiritualists  at  the  seances  held  in  the 
room,  and  there  was  an  old  chair  which  had  belonged  to  Captain  W^ebster's 
mother,  in  which  grandmother  always  sat  for  her  spirit  communications. 
Above  this  room,  which  was  known  as  the  "  spiritual  room,"  was  a  bedroom. 

One  night  in  the  autumn  of  1867,  as  nearly  as  I  can  fix  the  date,  a 


116        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

woman,  a  stranger,  came  to  my  grandmother's  door,  and  told  her  that 
she  had  been  led  by  the  spirits  to  come  to  her  house,  for  the  reason 
that  it  was  "  a  nice,  harmonious  home."  My  grandmother,  who  was  sympa- 
thetic and  hospitable,  and,  above  all,  a  devoted  Spiritualist,  who  would 
never  turn  another  Spiritualist  away,  upon  hearing  this,  exclaimed,  "  Glory 
to  God !  Come  right  in !  "  The  woman  thus  admitted  told  my  grandmother 
that  she  was  Mrs.  Mary  Glover,  a  Spiritualist,  and  that  she  had  been 
drawn  as  above  described  to  my  grandmother's  house.  Mrs.  Glover  did 
not  explain  further  why  she  came  and  did  not  say  from  what  place  she 
had  come.  My  grandmother  gave  her  the  use  of  the  bedroom  over  the 
spiritual  room,  and  also  the  use  of  the  spiritual  room.  Here  grandmother 
and  Mrs.  Glover  continued  to  hold  spiritualistic  seances,  in  which  Mrs. 
Glover  took  an  active  part,  passing  into  the  trance  state  and  giving  what 
grandmother  believed  to  be  communications   from  the  spirits. 

Mrs.  Glover  became  permanently  settled  at  Grandmother  Webster's 
house.  She  was  treated  as  a  guest,  was  waited  upon,  and  was  cared  for 
in  every  respect.  My  Grandfather  Webster,  coming  home  and  finding 
Mrs.  Glover  established  in  the  house,  was  displeased  because  she  was 
there.  He  told  my  grandmother  that  he  did  not  want  Mrs.  Glover  to 
remain.  .  .  .  But  Mrs.  Glover  continued  to  live  in  the  house,  and 
after  a  few  months,  during  which  my  grandmother's  admiration  for  Mrs. 
Glover  had  begun  to  grow  less,  Mrs.  Glover  informed  my  grandmother 
that  she  had  learned  a  new  science  which  she  thought  was  something 
beyond  Spiritualism.  She  said  she  had  learned  it  from  Dr.  Quimby  of 
Portland,  Maine,  and  that  she  had  brought  C02:)ies  of  some  of  his  manu- 
scripts with  her.  She  talked  about  it  and  read  the  manuscripts  to  my 
grandmother,  who  did  not,  however,  believe  that  the  "  science "  was  an 
improvement  or  a  step  beyond  Spiritualism.  From  that  time  forward 
Mrs.  Glover  talked  of  Quimby's  science.  She  was  writing  what  she  told 
grandmother  was  a  revision  of  the  Bible.  She  always  sat  in  the  spiritual 
chair  at  the  spiritual  table  in  grandmother's  sj:)iritual  room  to  do  her 
writing,  and  sometimes  after  she  had  written  for  hours,  she  would  gather 
up  all  the  pages  she  had  filled  with  writing  and  tear  them  up,  because 
she  could  not  make  them  read  as  she  wished. 

My  father,  William  R.  Ellis,  was  in  1867  living  in  New  York,  with 
his  three  children — myself,  my  sister,  and  my  brother.  My  mother  had 
died  three  or  four  years  before.  Our  family  had  always  spent  the  summer 
school  vacation  at  my  grandparents'  home  in  Amesbury,  Mass.,  and  when 
it  was  time  for  us  to  leave  New  York,  my  father  always  went  to  Amesbury 
in  advance  of  the  rest  of  us,  in  order  to  clear  my  grandmother's  house 
of  broken-down  Spiritualists  and  sick  persons,  so  that  we  might  have 
enough  room  in  the  house  and  because  he  thought  the  atmosphere  of  so 
much  sickness  and  Spiritualism  was  unwholesome  for  young  children. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  117 

My  father,  upon  first  seeing  Mrs.  Glover  in  the  house,  had  told  my 
grandmother   that   she,   Mrs.   Glover,   should   not   be   permitted   to   remain. 

My  grandmother,  upon  being  urged  by  my  father 

and  grandfather  to  dismiss  Mrs.  Glover,  at  last  told  her  that  she  was  no 
longer  welcome  and  asked  her  to  go  away.  Mrs.  Glover  ignored  my  grand- 
mother's  request   and   continued   to   live  in   the  house 

Failing  to  succeed  in  getting  Mrs.  Glover  to  leave  the  house,  my  grand- 
mother sent  for  my  father.  He  arrived  in  the  early  evening  of  the  follow- 
ing Saturday.  When  grandmother  had  told  him  of  the  trouble  and  how 
Mrs.  Glover  refused  to  go  away,  she  asked  my  father  to  see  if  he  could 
not  make  Mrs.  Glover  leave  the  house.  My  father  commanded  Mrs.  Glover 
to  leave,  and  when  she  steadfastly  refused  to  go,  he  had  her  trunk 
dragged  from  her  room  and  set  it  outside  the  door,  insisted  upon  her 
also  going  out  the  door,  and  when  she  was  outside  he  closed  the  door 
and  locked  it.  I  have  frequently  heard  my  father  describe  this  event 
in  detail,  and  I  have  heard  him  say  that  he  had  never  expected,  in 
his  whole  life,  to  be  obliged  to  put  a  woman  into  the  street.  It 
was  dark  at  the  time,  and  a  heavy  rain  was  falling.  My  grandparents 
and  my  father  considered  it  absolutely  necessary  to  take  this  step,  harsh 
and  disagreeable  as  it  seemed  to  them. 

The  above  statement  is  made  partly  from  my  own  personal  knowledge, 
and  partly  from  hearing  it  many,  many  times  from  my  father,  my  grand- 
mother, and  my  Grandfather  Webster,  who  have  related  it  to  me  and 
others  of  the  family  until  it  has  come  to  be  a  well-known  part  of  our 
family  history.  I  make  this  statement  of  my  own  free  will,  solely  in 
the  interests  of  justice. 

Mary   Ellis   Bartlett 


STATE    OF    MASSACHUSETTS, 
SUFFOLK,    SS: 

Personally  appeared  the  above  named  Mary  Ellis  Bartlett,  and  made 
oath  that  the  foregoing  statements  covering  eleven  sheets,  each  of  which 
is  subscribed  by  her,  are  true  to  the  best  of  her  knowledge  and  belief, 
this   sixth   day   of  February,   1907. 

Herbert  P.  Sheldok,  Notary  Public. 


When  Mrs.  Glover  was  thus  left  without  a  lodging-place 
for  the  night,  Mrs.  Richardson,  another  of  Mrs.  Webster's 
Spiritualist   guests,   who   was    in   the   house   at   the   time,   was 


118  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

moved  to  compassion   and   took   Mrs.   Glover  down   the   street 

to  the  house  of  Miss  Sarah  Bagley,  a  dressmaker,  who  was  a 

fellow  Spiritualist. 


DR.  ROUNDY  AND  WIFE, 

pLAIRVOYANT,  Magnetic  and  Electric  Physi- 
^  cians,  have  recently  furnished  a  honse  on 
Qulncy  avenue,  in  QuiNCr,  Mass.,  where  they  are 
still  Healing  the  Sick  v^'ith  good  success.  Board 
and  treatment  reasonable.  Address,  Quincy, 
ISlAss.  6w* — June  6. 


ANY  PERRON  desiring  to  learn  how  to  heal  the 
sick  can  receire  of  the  undersigned  instruction 
that  will  enalile  them  to  commence  healing  on  a 
principle  of  science  with  a  success  far  beyond 
any  of  the  present  modes.  No  medicine,  elec- 
tricity, physiology  or  hygiene  required  for  un- 
paralleled success  in  the  most  difficult  cases.  No 
pay  is  required  unless  this  skill  is  obtained.  Ad- 
dress. MRS.  MARY  B.  GLOVER,  Amesbury,  Mass., 
Box  61.  tff — .Tune  20. 


MRS.  MARY  LEWIS,  by  sending  their  autograph, 
or  lock  of  hair,  will  give  psychometrical  de- 
lineations of  character,  answer  questions.  &c. 
Terms  .$1.00  and  red  stamp.  Address,  MARY 
LEWIS,   Morrison,   Wliiteside   Co.,   111. 

June  20. — 20w*. 


The  above  advertisement,  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  offers  to  teach  a  new 
kind  of  healing  based  on  a  "  principle  of  science,"  appeared  July  4,  18G8, 
in  the  Banner  of  Light,  the  official  organ  of  New  England  Spiritualists. 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  then  living  at  the  home  of  the  Websters  in  Amesbury, 
and  the  number  of  Captain  Webster's  post-office  box  was  61. 

Miss  Bagley  took  the  friendless  woman  into  her  home,  and 
here,  in  addition  to  the  small  sum  which  she  paid  for  her 
board,  Mrs.  Glover  taught  Miss  Bagley  the  Quimby  method 
of  treating  disease.  Miss  Bagley  developed  such  powers  as  a 
healer  that  she  soon  abandoned  her  needle  and  began  to  practise 
"  professionally."  Mrs.  Glover  was  generally  known  in  Ames- 
bury as  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Quimby,  and  it  was  rumoured  in  the 
village  that  before  Mrs.  Glover  was  through  with  her  "  science  " 
she  was  going  to  walk  on  the  waters  of  the  ^Icrrimac.  Two 
Amesbury    girls    were    so    interested    in    this    report    that,    one 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  119 

afternoon  when  Mrs.  Glover  attended  some  merrymaking  on  the 
river  bank,  they  went  down  and  hngered  on  the  bridge,  hoping 
that  she  might  be  tempted  to  try  her  powers  on  that  festal 
occasion. 

To-day  the  Christian  Scientists  of  Lynn  draw  a  pathetic 
picture  of  the  persecuted  woman,  driven  from  door  to  door, 
carrying  her  great  truth  in  her  bosom,  and  finding  no  man 
ready  to  receive  it.  And  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
those  who  regard  Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  recipient  of  God's  most 
complete  revelation,  find  here  material  for  legend,  and  liken 
her  wanderings  to  those  of  the  persecuted  apostles. 

There  is  no  indication  that  these  harsh  experiences  ever, 
in  the  least,  subdued  Mrs.  Glover's  proud  spirit.  Wherever 
she  went,  she  took  her  place  as  the  guest  of  honour,  and  she 
consistently  assumed  that  she  conferred  favour  by  accepting 
hospitality.  She  did  not  hesitate  to  chide  and  reprimand  mem- 
bers of  the  families  she  visited,  to  criticise  and  interfere  with 
the  administration  of  household  affairs.  She  seems  never  to 
have  known  discouragement  or  to  have  felt  apprehension  for  the 
future,  but  was  content  v/ith  dominating  the  house  in  which 
she  happened  to  be  and  with  striving  to  win  a  following  among 
the  friends  of  the  family.  While  she  certainly  cherished  a 
vague,  half-formulated  plan  to  go  out  into  the  world  some  day 
and  teach  the  Quimby  doctrine,  her  imperative  need  was  to  con- 
trol the  immediate  situation ;  to  be  the  commanding  figure 
in  the  lodge,  the  sewing-circle,  the  family  gathering.  The  one 
thing  she  could  not  endure  was  to  be  thought  like  other  people. 
She  must  be  something  besides  plain  Mrs.  Glover, — invalid, 
poetess,  healer,  propagandist,  guest;  she  must  be  exceptional 


120     LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

at  any  cost.  Even  while  she  was  dependent  upon  precarious 
hospitality,  Mrs.  Glover  managed  to  invest  her  person  and  her 
doings  with  a  certain  form  and  ceremony  which  was  not  without 
its  effect.  She  spent  much  time  in  her  room ;  was  not  always 
accessible ;  had  her  meals  prepared  at  special  hours ;  made 
calls  and  received  visitors  with  a  certain  stress  of  graciousness 
and  condescension.  She  had  the  faculty  of  giving  her  every 
action  and  word  the  tone  of  importance.  She  was  now  a  woman 
of  forty-seven ;  her  wardrobe  was  shabby  and  scant ;  she  still 
rouged  her  cheeks ;  the  brown  hue  of  her  hair  was  crudely 
artificial;  her  watch  and  chain  and  several  gold  trinkets  were, 
with  the  Quimby  manuscripts,  her  only  treasures.  Certainly, 
neither  village  gossips  nor  rustic  humourists  had  spared  her. 
But  the  stage  did  not  exist  that  was  so  mean  and  poor,  nor  the 
audience  so  brutal  and  unsympathetic,  that  Mrs.  Glover  could 
not,  unabashed,  play  out  her  part. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TWO      YEARS      WITH      THE      WENTWORTHS      IN      STOUGHTON MRS. 

PATTERSON  INSTRUCTS  MRS.  WENTWORTH  FROM  THE  QUIMBY 
MANUSCRIPTS  AND  PREPARES  HER  FIRST  BOOK  FOR  THE  PRESS 

When  Mrs.  Glover  left  Amesbury,  she  went  to  Stoughton, 
to  the  home  of  Mrs.  Sally  Wentworth,  whom  she  had  met  when 
she  was  with  Hiram  Crafts.  Mrs.  Wentworth  had  a  consump- 
tive daughter  whom  she  took  to  Hiram  Crafts  for  treatment, 
and  in  his  house  she  met  Mrs.  Glover  and  became  much  interested 
in  her  system  of  healing.  Her  curiosity  about  the  Quimby  mind 
cure  was  not  surprising,  as  she  was  a  practical  nurse  and  had 
much  to  do  with  illness.  She  was  frequently  called  upon  to 
care  for  the  sick  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  was  locally  famous 
for  the  comfort  she  could  give  them  by  rubbing  their  limbs  and 
bodies.  She  was  a  Spiritualist  and  believed  in  the  healing 
power  of  Spiritualism.  "  Old  Ase  Holbrook,"  a  Spiritualist 
and  clairvoyant  "  doctor,"  often  asked  Mrs.  Wentworth  to 
assist  him  in  the  care  of  his  patients.  In  Mrs.  Glover's  system 
of  healing  she  hoped  to  find  something  which  she  could  put 
into  beneficial  practice  in  her  work.  Mrs.  Glover  went  into  Mrs. 
Wcntworth's  house  to  teach  her  the  Quimby  system  for  a  con- 
sideration of  three  hundred  dollars,  which  sum  was  to  cover 
her  board  and  lodging  for  a  considerable  period  of  time. 

The  Wentworth  household  then  consisted  of  the  parents  and 

121 


W2        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

two  children,  Charles  and  Lucy,  the  daughter  being  about 
fourteen  years  of  age.  The  married  son,  Horace  T.  Went- 
worth,  often  dropped  in  to  see  his  mother,  and  Mrs.  Went- 
worth's  niece — a  spirited  girl,  now  Mrs.  Catherine  Isabel  Clapp, 
was  in  and  out  of  the  house  continually.  Mrs.  Glover  lived 
Vv'ith  the  Wentworths  for  about  two  years,  leaving  them  only 
to  make  occasional  visits  in  the  neighbourhood  or  at  Amesbury. 
At  first  all  the  family  took  great  pleasure  in  her  visit.  Al- 
though Mrs.  Glover  seldom  held  her  friends  long,  and  although 
her  friendships  often  terminated  violently,  when  she  exerted 
herself  to  charm,  she  seldom  failed.  Mrs.  Wentworth  used  re- 
proachfully to  declare  to  her  less  impressionable  niece,  "  If 
ever  there  was  a  saint  upon  this  earth,  it  is  that  woman."  Both 
the  children  were  fond  of  Mrs.  Glover,  but  Lucy  abandoned  her- 
self to  adoration.  The  child  followed  her  about,  waited  upon 
her,  and  was  eager  to  anticipate  her  every  wish,  even  at  the 
cost  of  displeasing  her  parents.  She  resented  the  slightest 
criticism  of  tlieir  guest,  and  was  deeply  hurt  by  the  jests  which 
were  passed  in  the  village  at  IMrs.  Glover's  expense. 

j\Irs.  Glover's  highly  coloured  speech,  her  odd  clothes,  and 
grand  ways,  her  interest  in  strange  and  mysterious  subjects,  her 
high  mission  to  spread  the  truths  of  her  dead  master,  made 
her  an  interesting  figure  in  a  humdrum  New  England  village, 
and  her  very  eccentricities  and  affectations  varied  the  monotony 
of  a  quiet  household.  Her  being  "  different  "  did,  after  all, 
result  in  material  benefits  to  ]\Irs.  Glover.  All  these  people 
with  whom  she  once  stayed,  love  to  talk  of  her,  and  most  of 
them  are  glad  to  have  known  her, — even  those  who  now  say 
that  the  experience  was  a  costly  one.     She  was  like  a  patch 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  123 

of  colour  in  those  gray  communities.  She  was  never  dull,  her 
old  hosts  say,  and  never  commonplace.  She  never  laid  aside 
her  regal  air ;  never  entered  a  room  or  left  it  like  other  people. 
There  was  something  about  her  that  continually  excited  and 
stimulated,  and  she  gave  people  the  feeling  that  a  great  deal 
was  happening. 

Except  for  occasional  angry  outbursts,  it  was  this  engaging 
aspect  of  Mrs,  Glover  that,  for  many  months,  the  Wentworths 
saw.  She  was  tiresome  only  when  she  talked  of  Dr.  Quimby, 
and  then  only  because  she  discoursed  upon  him  and  his  philos- 
ophy so  often.  Mrs.  Clapp  describes  how,  after  long  disserta- 
tions on  mind  and  matter,  Mrs.  Glover  would  fold  her  hands 
in  her  lap,  tilt  her  head  on  one  side,  and  gently  nodding,  would, 
in  mincing  tones,  enunciate  this  sentence: 

"  I  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby,  and  he  made  me  promise 
to  teach  it  to  at  least  two  persons  before  I  die." 

She  confided  this  fact  to  every  one,  always  in  the  same  phrase, 
with  the  same  emphasis,  and  with  the  same  sweetness,  until  it 
became  a  fashion  for  the  village  girls  to  mimic  her. 

The  estrangement  which  resulted  in  Mrs.  Glover's  leaving  the"^^ 
house  began  in  a  difficulty  between  her  and  Mr.  Wentworth. 
Mr.  Wentworth  was  indignant  because  Mrs.  Glover  had  at- 
tempted to  persuade  his  wife  to  leave  him  and  to  go  away 
with  her  and  practise  the  Quimby  treatment.  After  this,  Mrs. 
Glover's  former  kindly  feeling  toward  the  family  seemed  to 
disappear  altogether.  Mrs.  Clapp  remembers  going  to  the 
house  one  day  and  being  disturbed  by  the  sound  of  violent 
pounding  on  the  floor  upstairs.  Her  aunt,  with  some  em- 
barrassment, explained  that  Mr.  Wentworth  was  sick  In  bed, 


124.  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 
and  that  Mrs.  Glover  had  shut  herself  in  her  room  and  was  de- 
liberately pounding  on  the  floor  above  his  head  to  annoy  him. 
Other  things  of  a  similar  nature  occurred,  and  Mrs.  Wentworth 
was  finally  compelled  to  ask  Mrs.  Glover  to  leave  the  house  as 
soon  as  she  could  find  another  place  to  stay.  Horace  T.  Went- 
worth, in  his  affidavit,  says: 

"  Mrs.  Wentworth  consulted  a  member  of  the  family  as  to  the 
best  way  to  bring  about  Mrs.  Glover's  departure.  By  this 
time  my  mother  was  almost  in  a  state  of  terror  regarding 
Mrs.  Glover.  She  was  so  afraid  of  her  that  she  hardly  dared 
to  go  to  sleep  at  night.  She  had  a  lock  put  on  the  door  of 
her  room  so  that  Mrs.  Glover  could  not  get  access  to  her,  and 
ordered  her  to  leave  the  house." 

Mrs.  Glover  chose  for  her  departure  a  day  when  all  the 
members  of  the  Wentworth  family  were  away  from  home. 
She  took  the  train  for  Amcsbury,  without  a  word  of  good-bye 
to  any  one.  When  the  Wentworths  returned  that  night,  they 
went  to  Mrs.  Glover's  room  and  knocked,  but  could  get  no 
reply.  Horace,  the  son,  suggested  forcing  the  lock,  but  his 
mother  would  not  permit  it,  saying  that  such  a  liberty  might 
offend  Mrs.  Glover,  who  had  probably  gone  to  spend  the  night 
with  one  of  the  neighbours.  The  next  day  they  inquired  among 
tlieir  friends,  but  could  get  no  news  of  their  missing  guest. 
Several  days  went  by,  and  Mrs.  Wentworth,  becoming  alarmed 
lest  some  mischance  might  have  befallen  Mrs.  Glover,  told  her 
son  to  force  the  door  and  see  if  any  clue  to  her  whereabouts 
could  be  found  in  her  room. 

Horace  T.  Wentworth,  in  his  affidavit,  thus  describes  his 
entering  the  room: 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  125 

A  few  days  after  Mrs.  Glover  left,  I  and  my  mother  went  into  the 
room  which  she  had  occupied.  We  were  the  first  persons  to  enter  the 
room  after  Mrs.  Glover's  departure.  We  found  every  breadth  of  matting 
slashed  up  through  the  middle,  apparently  with  some  sharp  instrument. 
We  also  found  the  feather-bed  all  cut  to  pieces.  We  opened  the  door 
of  a  closet.  On  the  floor  was  a  pile  of  newspapers  almost  entirely  con- 
sumed. On  top  of  these  papers  was  a  shovelful  of  dead  coals.  These 
had  evidently  been  left  upon  the  paper  by  the  last  occupant.  The  only 
reasons  that  they  had  not  set  the  house  on  fire  evidently  were  because  the 
closet  door  had  been  shut,  and  the  air  of  the  closet  so  dead,  and  because 
the  newspapers  were  piled  flat  and  did  not  readily  ignite — were  folded 
so  tight,  in  other  words,  that  they  would  not  blaze. 


Mrs.  Clapp,  in  her  affidavit,  substantiates  this  statement. 

The  Wentworths  never  saw  or  directly  heard  from  Mrs. 
Glover  again. 

While  Mrs.  Glover  was  in  Stoughton,  she  apparently  had 
no  ambition  beyond  expounding  Quimby's  philosophy  and  de- 
claring herself  his  disciple.  She  made  no  claim  to  having  origi- 
nated anything  she  taught. 

Although  Mrs.  Eddy  now  believes  that  she  discovered  the 
secret  of  health  through  divine  revelation  in  1866,  she  was 
often  ill  while  in  the  Wentworth  house,  1868-1870,  and  on 
several  occasions  was  confined  to  her  bed  for  considerable 
periods  of  time.  During  her  illnesses  Mrs.  Wentworth  nursed 
and  cared  for  her,  rubbing  her  and  treating  her  after  the 
Quimby  method. 

During  her  stay  in  Stoughton  she  made  no  claim  to  having 
received  a  divine  revelation,  or  to  having  discovered  any 
system  of  her  own.  She  seldom  associated  her  teachings 
with  religion  as  such,  and  preached  Quimbyism  merely 
as  an  advanced  system  of  treating  disease.  In  instructing 
Mrs.   Wentworth   she   used   a   manuscript,   which,   she   always 


126        LIFE  OF  I\1ARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

said,  liad  been  written  by  "  Dr.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Me."  She 
held  tliis  document  as  her  most  precious  possession.  "  One  day 
when  I  was  at  the  Wentworths',"  recently  said  Mrs.  Clapp, 
"  ]\Irs.  Wentworth  was  busy  copying  this  manuscript.  I  went 
to  the  buttery  to  get  what  I  wanted,  but  couldn't  find  it,  and 
called  Mrs.  Wentworth.  She  got  up  to  get  it  for  me,  but 
before  doing  so,  she  put  the  manuscript  in  the  desk  and  locked 
it.  I  expressed  surprise  that  she  should  take  such  pains  when 
she  was  only  stepping  across  the  room  for  a  moment,  and  she 
said :  '  Mrs.  Glover  made  me  promise  never  to  leave  this  manu- 
script, even  for  a  moment,  without  locking  the  desk.'  " 

]Mr.  Horace  T.  Wentworth  of  Stoughton  now  has  his  mother's 
manuscript.     He  has  made  affidavit  ^  that  this  is  the  document 


^  COMMONWEALTH    OF    MASSACHUSETTS, 
COUNTY    OF    NOUFOLKj    SS. 

Horace  T.  WontworHi,  being  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says: 

I  am  sixty-four  years  of  age,  and  reside  in  tlie  Town  of  Stoughton,  in  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  have  resided  there  for  upwards  of 
sixty-tv.-o  years  past.  I  am  the  son  of  Alanson  C.  and  Sally  Wentworth,  and 
my  mother  resided  in  said  town  of  Stoughton  from  her  birth  to  the  time  of 
her  death,  in   1S.S3. 

1  became  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  now  of  Concord,  N.  H., 
and  known  as  the  Discoverer  and  Founder  of  Christian  Science,  in  the  year 
180S,  when  she  was  the  wife  of  one  Daniel  Patterson,  with  whom  she  was 
not  living,  and  was  known  by  the  name  of  a  former  husband,  one  George  W. 
Glover,    and    called    herself    Mrs.    Mary    M.    Glover. 

In  18(i7,  Mrs.  Glover  came  to  Stoughton,  and  took  up  her  residence  at  the 
house  of  one  Iliram  Crafts  in  said  Town  of  Stoughton,  and  In  1868,  after 
leaving  said  Crafts,  she  went  upon  the  invitation  of  my  mother,  to  the  resi- 
dence of  said  Mrs.  Sally  Wentworth,  of  said  Stoughton,  and  there  continuously 
residid  until  the  spring  of  the  year  1,870.  Very  "often  during  the  vears  1,808, 
l.siJ'J,  and  1870,  I  saw  and  talked  with  said  Mrs.  Glover  at  my  mother's  said 
nshlrnce.  Mrs.  Wentworth  invited  said  Mrs.  Glover  to  visit  her  for  the 
cxpr.'ss  purpose  of  being  taught,  by  said  Mrs.  Glover,  a  svstem  of  mental 
healing,  which  said  Mrs.  Glover  said  she  had  been  taught  bv  one  Dr.  Phineas 
V.  guimby,  of  Portland,  Me.  Said  Mrs.  Glover  often  spoke  to  me  of  said 
system  of  mental  healing  and  always  ascribed  its  origin  and  discovery  to  said 
CJuimby.  Said  Mrs.  (Mover  was  outspoken  in  her  acknowledgment  that  she  learned 
her  menial  healing  system  from  said  Quimby,  and  never,  to  mv  knowledge, 
while  at  my  mother's  house,  made  the  slightest  claim  or  pretensions  to  having 
discovered  or  originated  it  herself. 

Suid  Mrs.  Glover,  upon  coming  to  my  mother's  house,  lent  my  mother  her 
manuscript  copy  of  what  she.  Jlrs.  Glover,  said  were  writings  of  said  Quimbv, 
and  permitled  my  inolhei  to  make  a  full  manuscript  copy  thereof,  and  said 
innnuseript  copy  of  the  writings  of  said  Quimby.  in  mv  mother's  handwriting, 
ami  with  cnrreclions  and  interlinealions  in  the  handwriting  of  Mrs.  Glover  is 
ntiw,    .md    has   been   since    my   mother's   death,   in    mv    possession. 

On  ihc  outside,  said  ooiiy  is  entitled  "Extracts  from  Doctor  P.  P.  Quimhy's 
Writings,      and    at    the    head    of    the    first    page,    on    the   inside,    said    copy    is 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  127 

copied  by  his  mother  from  Mrs,  Glover's,  and  that  he  has  him- 
self heard  Mrs.  Glover  attribute  the  original  to  Dr.  Quimby. 
His  brother,  Charles  O.  Wentworth;  his  sister,  Mrs.  Arthur  L. 
Holmes  (then  Miss  Lucy  Wentworth),  and  his  cousin,  Mrs. 
Catherine  Isabel  Clapp,  have  made  affidavits  to  the  same  effect. 
This  includes  all  members  of  the  Wentworth  household  now 
living. 

The  Wentworth  manuscript  itself  powerfully  supports  these 
affidavits.     Of  chief  interest   are  the  title-page   and   the  first 

fiirlhci-  entitled  "  The  Science  of  Man,  or  the  Principle  whicli  Controls  all 
Phenomena."  There  is  a  preface  of  two  pages  with  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Glover's 
name  signed  at  the  end.  The  extracts  are  in  the  form  of  fifteen  questions 
and  answers  and  are  labelled.  "  Questions  by  patients,  Answers  by  Dr.  Quimby." 

Annexed  hereto,  marked  "  Exhibit  A,"  is  a  full  and  complete  copy  of  my 
mother's  said  copy  of  Mrs.   Glover's  said  copy  of  Dr.   Quimby's  writings.    .    .    . 

Annexed  hereto  and  marked  "  Exhibit  B  "  is  a  photograph  of  the  first  page 
of  Mrs.  Wentworth's  manuscript  plainly  showing  the  additions  made  in  a 
handwriting  not  my  mother's.  All  of  the  said  first  page  shown  in  Exhibit  B 
is  my  mother's  handwriting  except  the  words  "  Wisdom  Love  &  "  added  to  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  line,  the  word  "  of "  and  the  symbol  "  & "  added  to 
the  sixteenth  line  and  the  words  "  is  in  it "  added  to  the  seventeenth  line, 
none   of  which   additions   is   in   my   mother's   handwriting. 

Annexed  hereto  and  marked  "  Exhibit  C  "  is  a  photograph  of  the  second  page 
of  said  manuscript  plainly  showing  further  additions  in  a  handwriting  not 
my  mother's.  All  of  the  said  second  page  sliown  in  Exhibit  C  is  in  my 
mother's  handwriting  except  the  words  "  wisdom  love  &  "  added  to  the  second 
line,  the  word  "  believe  "  added  to  the  eleventh  line,  none  of  which  additions 
is   in    my    mother's    handwriting. 

I  am  perfectly  familiar  with  my  mother's  handwriting;  but  am  not  familiar 
enough  with  said  Mrs.  Glover's  handwriting  to  state  positively  from  my  ac- 
quaintance with  it,  that  the  said  added  words  are  written  by  her.  This  manu- 
script, however,  came  directly  into  my  hands  from  my  mother's  desk  at  the 
time  of  her  death  ;  the  added  words  are  not  in  the  handwriting  of  any  member 
of  my  family  ;  they  are,  as  will  be  seen,  in  the  nature  of  corrections  to  my 
mother's  writing  of  said  Mrs.  Glover's  signed  preface  to  Dr.  Quimliy's  teach- 
ings, and,  having  compared  them  with  unquestionable  writing  of  said  Mrs. 
Glover's,  found  with  my  mother's  papers,  and  seen  them  to  be  strikingly 
similar,  I  am  confidently  of  the  opinion  that  they  ai*e  the  writing  of  the  only 
person  interested  in  the  correction  of  said  Mrs.  Glover's  preface  to  said  Dr. 
Quimby's  writings,  to  wit,  said  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Glover — Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy — herself. 

I  have  been  often  urged  to  make  these  facts  known  in  the  public  interest, 
and  have  for  years  felt  it  my  duty  to  tell  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth.    .    .    . 

Horace  T.  Wentwouth. 

On  this  9th  day  of  February,  1907,  at  the  Town  of  Stoughton,  in  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  personally  appeai-od  1>efore  me,  Horace  T.  Went- 
worth, to  me  personally  known,  and  made  oath  before  me  that  he  had  read 
over  tlie  foregoing  statement  and  knows  the  contents  thereof,  and  that  the 
same  are  true ;  and  he.  thereupon,  in  my  presence,  did  sign  his  name  at  the 
end  of  said   statement,   and  at   the   foot  of  the  cover. 

Edg.\e  F.  Leonard,  Justice  of  the  Peace. 

And  before  me  a  Notary  Public  appeared  Horace  T.  Wentworth  and  made 
oath  to  above  statement.  Henky  W.  Bbitton,  Notary  Public. 

Stoughton,  Maf^f:. 

FeJ).  9th,  l'J07. 


128        LIFE  OF  INIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

two  pages,  which  are  here  reproduced  in  facsimile.  The  title- 
page  reads,  "  Extracts  from  Doctor  P.  P.  Quimby's  Writings." 
On  the  first  page  of  the  manuscript  appears  the  title,  "  The 
Science  of  Man  or  the  principle  which  controls  all  phenomena." 
Then  follows  a  preface,  signed  "  Mary  M.  Glover."  Following 
this  is  a  marginal  note,  "  P.  P.  Q.'s  Mss.,"  and  at  this  point 
begins  the  Quimby  paper.  Others  who  have  copies  of  this 
same  document  declare  that  Mrs.  Glover  taught  from  them 
and  sold  them  as  copies  of  Quimby's  manuscript. 

By  examining  the  pages  reproduced  in  facsimile,  the  reader 
will  observe  that  some  one  has  edited  them, — that  certain  words 
are  written  in,  not  in  the  handwriting  of  Mrs.  Wentworth. 
Beginning  the  fourth  paragraph  of  the  first  page,  are  the 
words,  "  Wisdom  Love  &  " ;  two  lines  below  this,  are  the  words, 
"  is  in  it  " ;  on  the  second  page,  second  line,  again,  "  wisdom 
love  &  " ;  and  on  the  eleventh  line  of  the  same  page,  "  believe." 
Mrs.  Clapp,  who  was  familiar  with  Mrs.  Glover's  handwriting 
at  the  time,  having  copied  many  pages  of  her  manuscript,  takes 
oath  that  she  believes  these  interlineations  to  be  Mrs.  Glover's. 
jNlr.  William  G.  Nixon  of  Boston,  who,  as  the  publisher  for 
several  years  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  books,  handled  thousands  of  pages 
of  her  manuscript,  also  takes  oath  that  in  his  opinion  these 
words  are  in  her  handwriting.  George  A.  Quimby  of  Belfast, 
Mc,  has  lent  to  the  writer  one  of  his  father's  manuscripts, 
entitled,  "  Questions  and  Answers."  This  is  in  the  handwriting 
of  Mr.  Quimby's  mother,  the  wife  of  Phineas  P.  Quimby,  and 
is  dated,  in  Mrs.  Quimby's  handwriting,  February,  1862, — nine 
months  before  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  visit  to  Portland.  For  twenty 
closely  written  pages,  Quimby's  manuscript,  "  Questions  and 


,J JiJt    'Ucu  net  (-^        ''JlcLfl. 


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fij. 

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Title  page  and  part  of   the  tirst  page    of    the  manuscript   from    which   Mrs. 

Glover  taught  Mrs.  Wentworth  the  system  of  mental  healing 

which  she  ascribed  to  P.  P.  Quimby 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  129 

Answers,"  is  word  for  word  the  same  as  Mrs.  Glover's  manu- 
script, "  The  Science  of  Man."  ^ 

The  relation  of  Quimby's  "  Questions  and  Answers  "  to  the 
Christian  Science  doctrine  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 
The  following  quotations,  taken  at  random,  illustrate  the  fact 
that  the  Quimby  manuscript  abounds  in  ideas  and  phrases 
familiar  to  every  Christian  Scientist. 

If  I  understand  how  disease  originates  in  the  mind  and  fully  believe 
it,  why  cannot   I   cure  myself? 

Disease  being  made  by  our  beliefs  or  by  our  parents'  beliefs  or  by 
public  opinion,  there  is  no  one  formula  of  argument  to  be  adopted,  but 
every  one  must  be  hit  in  their  particular  case.  Therefore  it  requires  great 
shrewdness  or  wisdom  to   get  the  better  of  the  error. 

I  know  of  no  better  counsel  than  Jesus  gave  to  His  Disciples  when 
He  sent  them  forth  to  cast  out  devils,  and  heal  the  sick,  and  thus  in 
practice  to  preach  the  Truth  "  Be  ye  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as 
doves."  Never  get  into  a  passion,  but  in  patience  possess  ye  your  soul,  and 
at  length .  j^ou  weary  out  the  discord  and  produce  harmony  by  your  Truth 
destroying  error.  Then  it  is  you  get  the  case.  Now,  if  you  are  not  afraid 
to  face  the  error  and  argue  it  down,  then  you  can  heal  the  sick. 

The  isatient's  disease  is  in  his  belief. 

Error   is    sickness.     Truth   is   health. 

In  this  science  the  names  are  given  thus:  God  is  Wisdom.  This  Wisdom 
is  not  an  individuality  but  a  principle,  embraces  every  idea  form,  of 
which  the  idea,  man,  is  the  highest — hence  the  image  of  God,  or  the 
Principle. 

Understanding   is   God. 

All  sciences  are  part  of  God. 

Truth  is   God. 

There  is  no  other  Truth  but  God. 

God  is  Wisdom.     God  is  Principle. 

Wisdom,  Love,   and   Truth  are   the  Principle. 

Error  is  matter. 

Matter  has   no   intelligence. 

To  give  intelligence  to  matter  is  an  error  which  is  sickness. 

Matter  has  no  intelligence  of  its  own,  and  to  believe  intelligence  is  in 
matter  is  the  error  which  produces  pain   and  inharmony  of  all  sorts;   to 


2  The  manuscript  Science  of  Man,  from  which  Mrs.  Glover  taught,  Is  not  the 
same   work   as   her  printed  pamphlet  of  that   title, 


130        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

hold  ourselves  we  are  a  principle  outside  of  matter,  we  would  not  be 
influenced  by  the  opinions  of  man,  but  held  to  the  worliings  only  of  a 
principle,  Truth,  in  which  there  are  no  inharmonies  of  sickness,  pain  or  sin. 

For  matter  is  an  error,  there  being  no  substance,  which  is  Truth,  in  a 
thing  which  ciianges  and  is  only  that  which  belief  makes  it. 

Christ  was  the  Wisdom  that  knew  Truth  dwelt  not  in  opinion,  and 
tiiat  matter  was  but  opinion  that  could  be  formed  into  any  shape  which 
the  belief  gave  to  it,  and  that  the  life  which  moved  it  came  not  from  it, 
but  was  outside  of  it. 

In  teaching  Mrs.  Wentworth,  Mrs.  Glover  supplemented  the 
Quimby  manuscripts  with  oral  instruction.  She  taught  Mrs. 
Wentworth  to  rub  her  patient's  head,  precisely  as  did  Quimby, 
and  to  say,  as  she  did  so :  "  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  rub 
your  head,  but  I  do  it  to  concentrate  my  thoughts."  In  addi- 
tion she  taught  Mrs.  Wentworth  to  lay  her  hands  over  the 
patient's  stomach. 

Mrs.  Eddy  left  a  few  scraps  of  writing  at  the  Wentworths', 
all  connected  with  her  teachings.  Of  especial  interest  are  the 
instructions  which  she  wrote  out  to  direct  Mrs.  Wentworth 
in  treating  the  sick.  These  Mr.  Horace  T.  Wentworth  has  in 
licr  own  handwriting.  The  first  two  pages  of  this  manuscript 
read  as  follows:  (The  spelling,  punctuation,  etc.,  follow  the 
original  MS.) 

An  argument  for  the  sick  having  what  is  termed  fever  chills  and  heat 
with  sleepless  nights,  and  called  spinal  inflammation. 

The  patient  has  been  doctoring  the  sick  one  patient  is  an  opium  eater, 
with  catarrh,  great  fear  of  the  air,  etc.  Another  had  inflammation  of 
the  joints  or  rheumatism,  and  liver  complaint  another  scrofula  and  rheuma- 
tism, and  another  dyspepsia,  all  of  them  having  the  most  intense  fear. 

First  the  fever  is  to  be  argued  down.  What  is  heat  and  chills  we 
answer  nothing  but  an  effect  produced  upon  the  body  by  images  of 
disease  before  the  spiritual  senses  wherefore  you  must  say  of  heat  and 
chill  you  are  not  hot  you  are  not  cold  you  are  only  the  eflFect  of  fright 
there  is  no  such   thing  as  heat   and   cold   if  there  were  you  would   not 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  131 

grow    hot    when    angry    or    abashed    or    frightened    and    the    temperature 
around  not  changed  in  the  least. 

Inflammation  is  not  inflammation  or  redness  and  soreness  of  any  part 
this  is  your  belief  only  and  this  belief  is  the  red  dragon  the  King  of 
beasts  which  means  this  belief  of  inflammation  is  the  leading  lie  out  of 
which  you  get  your  fright  that  causes  chills  and  heat.  Now  look  it  down 
cause  your  patient  to  look  at  this  truth  with  you  call  upon  their  spiritual 
senses  to  look  with  your  view  which  sees  no  such  image  and  thus  waken 
them  out  of  their  dream  that  is  causing  them  so  much  suff"ering,  etc. 

In  her  autobiographical  sketches,  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  men- 
tion the  years  she  spent  in  Stoughton,  Taunton,  and  Ames- 
bury.  In  Restrospection  and  Introspection,  page  39,  she  says, 
after  recounting  the  manner  of  her  miraculous  recovery  and 
revelation  in  1866: 

I  then  withdrew  from  society  about  three  j^ears, — to  ponder  my  mission, 
to  search  the  Scriptures,  to  find  the  Science  of  Mind,  that  should  take 
the  things  of  God  and  show  them  to  the  creature,  and  reveal  the  great 
curative   Principle, — Deity. 

The  record  of  these  wandering,  vagarious  years  from  1864< 
to  1870  is  far  from  being  satisfactory  biography;  the  number 
of  houses  in  which  she  lived,  her  quarrels  and  eccentricities, 
by  no  means  tell  us  the  one  thing  which  is  of  real  importance: 
what,  all  this  time,  was  going  on  in  Mrs.  Glover's  own  conscious- 
ness. Wherever  she  went,  she  taught,  now  a  shoemaker,  now 
a  dressmaker,  now  a  boy  in  the  box  factory;  and  wherever  she 
went,  she  wrote.  Her  first  book  was  not  published  until  1875,1 
but  for  eight  years  before  she  was  always  writing;  working 
upon  articles  and  treatises  which  were  eventually  incorporated 
in  this  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health.  As  early  as  1866, 
when  she  was  in  Lynn,  she  said  that  she  was  writing  a  Bible, 
and  was  almost  through  Genesis.  Several  years  later,  at  the 
Wentworths',  she  pointed  affectionately  to  a  pile  of  note-paper 


132        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

tied  up  with  a  string,  which  lay  on  her  desk,  and  told  Mrs. 
Clapp  tliat  it  was  her  Bible,  and  that  she  had  completed  the 
Book  of  Genesis.  Mrs.  Clapp  at  that  time  copied  for  Mrs. 
Glover  a  bulky  manuscript,  which  she  believes  was  one  of  the 
early  drafts  of  Science  and  Health.  She  recalls  many  passages, 
and  remembers  her  amusement  in  copying  the  following  passage, 
which  now  occurs  on  page  413  of  Science  and  Health: 

The  daily  ablutions  of-an  infant  are  no  more  natural  or  necessary  than 
would  be  the  process  of  taking  a  fish  out  of  water  every  day  and  covering  it 
with  dirt  in  order  to  make  it  thrive  more  vigorously  thereafter  in  its  native 
element. 

After  Mrs.  Clapp  had  finished  copying  the  manuscript,  Mrs. 
Glover  took  it  to  Boston  to  find  a  publisher.  Six  hundred 
dollars,  cash,  in  advance,  was  the  only  condition  on  which  a 
pubhsher  would  undertake  to  get  out  the  book,  and  Mrs.  Glover 
returned  to  Stoughton  and  vainly  besought  Mrs.  Wentworth 
to  mortgage  the  farm  to  raise  money. 

Mrs.  Glover's  persistence  was  all  the  more  remarkable  in 
that  the  trade  of  authorship  presented  peculiar  difficulties  for 
her.  Although  from  her  youth  she  had  never  lost  an  oppor- 
tunity to  write  for  the  local  papers,  and  although  when  she 
first  went  to  Dr.  Quimby  she  introduced  herself  to  him  as  an 
"  authoress,"  her  contributions  in  the  old  files  of  the  Lynn  papers 
show  that  she  had  had  no  training  In  the  elementary  essentials 
of  composition.  The  quoted  extracts  from  her  written  in- 
structions to  Mrs.  Wentworth  are  indicative  of  her  difficulties 
with  punctuation,  which  was  always  a  laborious  second  thought 
with  her.  From  her  letters  and  early  manuscripts  it  is  evident 
that  lucid,  clean-cut  expression  was  ahnost  impossible  to  Mrs. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  133 

Glover.  Some  of  her  first  dissertations  upon  Quimbyism  were 
so  confused  as  to  be  almost  unintelligible.  She  had,  indeed,  to 
fashion  her  own  tools  in  those  years  when  she  was  carpentering 
away  at  her  manuscript  and  struggling  to  get  her  mass  of  notes 
into  some  coherent  form.  Her  mind  was  as  untrained  as  her 
pen.  Logical  thought  was  not  within  her  compass,  and  even 
her  sporadic  ideas  were  vague  and  befogged.  Yet,  strangely 
enough,  her  task  was  to  present  an  abstract  theory,  and  to 
present  it  largely  in  writing. 

Everything  depended  upon  her  getting  a  hearing.  In  the 
first  place,  her  doctrine  was  her  only  congenial  means  of  making 
a  living.  In  the  second,  it  was  the  one  thing  about  which  she 
knew  more  than  the  people  around  her,  and  il;  gave  her  that 
distinction  which  was  necessary  to  her.  Above  all,  she  had  a 
natural  aptitude  for  the  subject  and  absorbed  it  until  it  literally 
became  a  part  of  her.  Mercenary  motives  were  always  strong 
with  Mrs.  Glover,  but  no  mercenary  motive  seems  adequately 
to  explain  her  devotion  to  this  idea.  After  Quimby's  death  in 
^66,  his  other  pupils  were  silent;  but  Mrs.  Glover,  wandering 
about  with  no  capital  but  her  enthusiasm,  was  preaching  still. 
Her  fellow-students  in  Portland  were  people  of  wider  experi- 
ence than  she,  and  had  more  than  one  interest ;  but  only  one 
idea  had  ever  come  very  close  to  Mrs.  Glover,  and  neither 
things  present  nor  things  to  come  could  separate  her  from  it. 
But  Mrs.  Glover  had  not  the  temperament  of  the  dreamer  and 
devotee.  There  was  one  thing  in  her  stronger  even  than  her 
monomania,  and  that  was  her  masterfulness.  Others  of  his 
pupils  lost  themselves  in  Quimby's  philosophy,  but  Mrs.  Glover 
lost   Quimby  in  herself. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MRS.  GLOVER  GOES  INTO  PARTNERSHIP  WITH  RICHARD  KENNEDY 

THEIR      ESTABLISHMENT     IN      LYNN MRS.      GLOVEr's      FIRST 

DISCIPLES DISAGREEMENTS  AND  LAWSUITS 

When  Mrs.  Glover  left  Stoughton  early  in  the  year  1870, 
she  went  directly  to  the  home  of  her  friend,  Miss  Sarah  Bagley, 
in  Amesbury,  Mass. 

During  her  former  stay  in  Amesbury,  more  than  two  years 
before,  she  had  undertaken  the  instruction  of  a  boy  in  whom 
she  saw  exceptional  possibilities.  When  she  first  met  Richard 
Kennedy,  he  was  a  boy  of  eighteen,  ruddy,  sandy-haired,  with 
an  unfailing  flow  of  good  spirits  and  a  lively  wit  which  did 
not  belie  his  Irish  ancestry.  From  his  childhood  he  had  made 
his  own  way,  and  he  was  then  living  at  Captain  Webster's 
and  working  in  a  box  factory.  Mrs.  Glover  recognised  in  him, 
as  she  did  in  every  one  she  met,  excellent  capital  for  a  future 
practitioner.  He  studied  zealously  with  her  while  she  remained 
at  the  Wcbsters',  and  when  she  was  compelled  to  leave  the 
house,  Kennedy,  with  Quixotic  loyalty  becoming  his  years,  left 
with  her.  After  she  went  to  Stoughton,  Mrs.  Glover  wrote  to 
him  often,  and  whenever  he  could  spare  the  time,  he  went  over 
from  Amesbury  to  take  a  lesson.  After  her  break  with  the 
Wcntworths,  Mrs.  Glover  at  once  sought  him  out.  He  was 
then  her  most  promising  pupil,  and  her  only  hope  of  getting 

134 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  135 

the  Quimby  science  upon  any  practical  basis.  Her  experiment 
with  Hiram  Crafts  had  failed  and  she  had  not  succeeded  in 
her  efforts  to  induce  Mrs.  Crosby  in  Albion,  or  Mrs.  Wentworth 
in  Stoughton,  to  give  up  their  homes  and  go  into  the  business 
of  teaching  and  practising  the  Quimby  system  with  her.  What  -, 
Mrs.  Glover  most  wanted  was  a  partner,  and  she  now  saw  one 
in  Richard  Kennedy.  He  was  nearly  twenty-one  and  suffi- 
ciently well-grounded  in  the  principles  of  mind-cure  to  begin 
practising.  Mrs.  Glover  had  not,  up  to  this  time,  achieved 
any  success  as  a  healer  herself,  and  she  had  come  to  see  that 
her  power  lay  almost  exclusively  in  teaching  the  theory.  With- 
out a  practical  demonstration  of  its  benefits,  however,  the 
theory  of  her  Science  excited  little  interest,  and  it  was  in  con- 
junction with  a  practising  student  that  she  could  teach  most 
effectively.  She  entered  into  an  agreement  with  young  Kennedy 
to  the  effect  that  they  were  to  open  an  office  in  Lynn,  Mass., 
and  were  to  remain  together  three  years. 

In  June,  1870,  Mrs.  Glover  and  Richard  Kennedy  went  toi 
Lynn.  They  stayed  temporarily  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Clarkson' 
Oliver,  whom  Kennedy  had  known  in  Amesbury,  while  he  looked 
about  for  suitable  offices.  He  heard  that  Miss  Susie  Magoun, 
who  conducted  a  private  school  for  young  children,  had  just 
leased  a  building  on  the  corner  of  Shepard  and  South  Common 
Streets  and  was  desirous  of  subletting  the  second  floor.  Miss 
Magoun,  now  Mrs.  John  M.  Dame  of  Lynn,  remembers  how 
one  June  evening,  when  she  was  looking  over  the  building  to 
decide  upon  the  arrangement  of  her  schoolrooms,  a  very  boyish- 
looking  young  man  appeared  and  nervously  asked  whether  she 
intended  to  let  a  part  of  the  house.     He  said  he  was  looking 


136        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

for  offices  for  a  physician.  Miss  Magoun,  misled  by  his  youth- 
ful appearance,  at  once  supposed  that  he  wanted  the  rooms 
for  his  father,  wliich  caused  the  boy  some  embarrassment.  He 
told  her  that  the  five  rooms  upstairs  would  not  be  too  many 
for  him,  as  he  should  bring  with  him  "  an  elderly  woman  who 
was  writing  a  book,"  and  they  would  each  need  offices  and 
sleeping-rooms.  Miss  Magoun  liked  the  boy's  candour  and  told 
him  he  might  move  in.  He  drew  a  sigh  of  relief,  telling  her 
that  so  many  people  had  refused  him  that  he  had  almost  lost 
heart.  Even  when  Miss  Magoun's  friends  prophesied  that  she 
would  lose  her  rent,  she  did  not  repent  of  her  bargain ;  and 
she  never  afterward  had  occasion  to  do  so.  Miss  Magoun's 
first  meeting  with  Mrs.  Glover  occurred  some  days  later,  when 
her  new  tenants  came  to  take  possession  of  their  rooms.  As 
she  was  hurrying  through  the  hall  to  her  classroom,  young 
Kennedy  stopped  her  and  introduced  his  partner.  Mrs.  Glover 
boAved  and  at  once  began  to  explain  to  her  astonished  landlady 
the  Quimby  theory  of  the  universe  and  the  non-existence  of 
matter. 

Kennedy's  sign,  which  was  put  on  a  tree  in  the  yard,  read 
simply :  "  Dr.  Kennedy."  The  rooms  upstairs  were  very  plainly 
furnished,  for  Mrs.  Glover  had  no  money  and  her  student  very 
little.  They  bought  only  such  articles  of  furniture  as  were 
absolutely  necessary,  covered  the  floor  with  paper  oil-cloth,  and 
put  up  cheap  shades  at  the  windows.  Much  to  Miss  Magoun's 
surprise,  patients  began  to  come  in  before  the  first  week  was 
over,  and  at  the  end  of  the  month  Kennedy  was  able  to  pay 
his  rent  promptly.  By  the  first  of  September  the  young  man's 
practice  was  flourishing.     Miss  Magoun's  school  was  in  excel- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  137 

lent  standing,  and  the  fact  that  his  office  was  in  the  same  build- 
ing recommended  the  young  practitioner,  while  she  herself  was 
glad  to  say  a  good  word  for  him  whenever  she  could.  It 
became  a  common  thing  for  the  friends  of  discouraged  invalids 
to  say:  "Go  to  Dr.  Kennedy.  He  can't  hurt  you,  even  if  he 
doesn't  help  you."  His  offices  were  sometimes  so  crowded  that 
he  would  have  to  ask  his  patients  to  await  their  turn  below 
in  Miss  Magoun's  parlour.  The  children  in  the  school  were  fond 
of  him,  and  he  often  found  time  to  run  downstairs  about  dis- 
missal hour  and  help  Miss  Magoun  and  her  assistant  get  the 
younger  pupils  into  their  wraps  and  overshoes.  He  knew  them 
all  by  name,  and  sometimes  joined  in  their  games. 

Mrs.  Glover  herself,  during  these  first  months,  remained  much 
in  the  background,  a  solitary  and  somewhat  sombre  figure,  ap- 
plying herself  to  her  work  with  ever-increasing  seriousness. 
For  the  first  time  she  was  free  from  pecuniary  embarrassments, 
and  she  concentrated  her  energies  upon  her  teaching,  and 
writing  with  a  determination  which  she  had  never  before  shown. 
She  seldom  went  out  of  the  house,  was  usually  silent  at  Miss 
Magoun's  dinner-table,  and  the  school  children,  when  they  met 
her  in  the  hall,  hurried  curiously  past  the  grave,  abstracted 
woman,  who  never  spoke  to  them  or  noticed  them.  Far  from 
relaxing  in  an  atmosphere  of  comparative  prosperity,  she  was 
impatient  of  the  easy-going  friendliness  of  the  people  about  her. 
She  was  contemptuous  of  the  active  part  which  Kennedy  took 
in  the  social  life  around  him,  and  resented  his  having  much  to 
do  with  Miss  Magoun's  young  friends.  She  continually  urged 
him  to  put  aside  every  other  interest  and  concentrate  himself 
wholly  upon  Science.      She  was  annoyed  at  the  women  patients 


138        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

who  came  often  for  treatment,  and  when  she  saw  them  sitting 
in  the  front  office  awaiting  their  turn,  she  sometimes  referred 
to  them  as  "  the  stool-pigeons."  She  began  in  these  days  to 
sense  the  possibihties  of  the  principle  she  taught,  and  to  see 
further  than  a  step  ahead.  She  often  told  Kennedy  that  she 
would  one  day  establish  a  great  religion  which  would  reverence 
her  as  its  founder  and  source.  "  Richard,"  she  would  declare, 
looking  at  him  intently,  "  you  will  live  to  hear  the  church-bells 
ring  out  my  birthday."  And  on  July  16,  1904,  they  did — 
her  own  bells,  in  her  own  church  at  Concord. 

The  foeling  of  at  last  having  her  foot  in  the  stirrup  seemed 
to  crystallise  and  direct  Mrs.  Glover's  ambition  as  adversity 
had  never  done.  She  had  something  the  world  had  waited  for, 
she  told  Kennedy,  and  she  meant  to  make  the  world  pay  for  it. 
She  often  declared  that  she  had  been  born  an  unwelcome  child, 
and  that  from  the  first  every  man's  hand  had  been  against  her. 
Although  she  was  in  her  fiftieth  year,  Mrs.  Glover  had  not 
reached  the  maturity  of  her  powers.  During  these  early  years 
in  Lynn  she  becomes  in  every  way  a  more  commanding  and 
formidable  person.  Since  she  no  longer  had  to  live  by  her 
wits,  certain  affectations  and  ingratiating  mannerisms  became 
less  pronounced.  The  little  distinction  for  which  she  had 
fought  so  tenaciously,  and  which  she  had  been  put  at  such 
shifts  to  maintain,  was  now  respectfully  admitted  by  all  her 
students — and  by  some  even  reverently.  She  began  to  dress 
better.  Her  thin  face  filled  out,  her  figure  lost  its  gauntness 
and  took  on  an  added  dignity.  People  who  were  afraid  of  her 
complained  that  her  "  hawk-eye  "  looked  clear  through  them, 
and  persons  who  admired  her  compared  her  eye  to  an  eagle's. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  139 

Once  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  compelling  attention  from 
hither  and  yon,  she  conserved  her  powers  and  exerted  herself 
only  when  she  could  hope  for  a  commensurate  result.  In  follow- 
ing her  through  the  six  years  prior  to  1870,  one  is  struck  with 
her  seeming  helplessness  against  herself  and  against  circum- 
stances, and  with  the  preponderant  element  of  blind  chance  in 
her  life.  Before  she  had  been  in  Lynn  a  year,  she  had  come 
to  work  with  some  sort  of  plan,  and  her  life  was  more  orderly 
and  effective  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  Her  power  was 
one  of  personality,  and  people  were  her  material; — her  church, 
which  so  persistently  denies  personality,  is  built  upon  it.  Her 
abilities  were  administrative  rather  than  executive,  and  without 
a  cabinet  she  exemplified  the  old  fable  of  the  impotence  of 
the  head  without  the  body. 

Mrs.  Glover  at  first  called  the  thing  she  taught  merely 
"  science,"  but  when  she  had  her  professional  cards  printed  they 
read : 


MRS.  MARY  M.  GLOVER, 

teacher  of 
Moral  Science. 


Her  first  students  in  Lynn  were  persons  whom  Richard  Ken- 
nedy had  cured  or  friends  of  his  patients.  The  case  of  two 
young  men  in  her  first  class  will  serve  to  illustrate.  Mrs. 
Charles -S.  Stanley,  who  was  suffering  from  tuberculosis  in  an 
advanced  stage,  was  greatly  benefited  by  Kennedy.  She  en- 
treated her  husband  and  her  half-brother  to  take  instruction 
under  Mrs.  Glover,  and  they  did  so.  Her  husband  at  first  felt 
that  he  had  an  aptitude  for  the  subject  and  eventually  became 


140        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

a  practising  student.  As  to  the  half-brother,  George  Tuttle, 
Mrs.  Glover  felt  that  there  she  had  cast  her  seed  upon  ston^; 
ground ;  and  certainly  he  must  have  been  an  incongruous  figure 
in  the  little  circle  which  met  in  her  rooms  to  "  unlearn  matter." 
A  stalwart,  strapping  lad,  he  had  just  returned  from  a  cruise 
to  Calcutta  on  the  sailing  vessel  John  Clark,  which  carried 
ice  from  Boston  Harbour  to  the  Indies.  The  young  seaman, 
when  asked  what  he  thought  he  would  get  out  of  Mrs.  Glover's 
class,  replied  that  he  didn't  think  about  it  at  all,  he  joined 
because  his  sister  asked  him  to.  He  even  tried,  in  a  bashful  way, 
to  practise  a  little,  but  he  says  that  when  he  actually  cured 
a  girl  of  dropsy,  he  was  so  surprised  and  frightened  that  he 
washed  his  hands  of  Moral  Science. 

Mrs.  Glover's  course  consisted  of  twelve  lectures  and  extended 
over  a  period  of  three  weeks.  Her  students  were  required  to 
make  a  cop}^  of  the  Quimby  manuscript  which  Mrs.  Glover  called 
*'  The  Science  of  Man,"  and  although  each  was  allowed  to 
keep  his  copy,  he  was  usually  put  under  a  formal  three- thousand- 
dollar  bond  not  to  show  it.  As  soon  as  the  student  had  taken 
the  final  lesson,  Mrs.  Glover  addressed  him  or  her  as  "  Doctor," 
and  considered  that  a  degree  had  been  conferred.  Often  she 
wrote  her  students  a  congratulatory  letter  upon  their  gradua- 
tion, addressing  them  by  their  newly  acquired  titles. 

The  members  of  her  first  class  in  Lynn  each  paid  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  lessons.  Each  also  agreed  to  give  Mrs.  Glover  a 
percentage  on  the  income  from  his  practice.  Tuttle  and  Stan- 
ley executed  an  agreement  with  her  which  was  substantially  in 
the  following  words : 

"Lynn,  Aug.   15,  1870.     We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  141 

agree  in  consideration  of  instruction  and  manuscripts  received 
from  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Glover,  to  pay  one  hundred  dollars  in 
advance  and  ten  per  cent,  annually  on  the  income  that  we  re- 
ceive from  practising  or  teaching  the  science.  We  also  agree 
to  pay  her  one  thousand  dollars  in  case  we  do  not  practise 
or  teach  the  above-mentioned  science  that  she  has  taught  us. 
(Signed)  G.  H.  Tuttle,  Charles  S.  Stanley." 
'  Trouble  arose  between  George  Tuttle  and  Charles  Stanley 
and  their  teacher,  and  Mrs.  Glover  dismissed  Stanley  from 
the  class.  Although  he  afterward  practised  mental  healing 
with  some  success,  it  was  not  with  Mrs.  Glover's  sanction,  and 
he  finally  became  a  homoeopathic  physician.  In  1879  Mrs. 
Glover  brought  a  suit  in  equity  in  the  Essex  County  Court 
against  Tuttle  and  Stanley  for  unpaid  tuition.  Judge  George 
F.  Choate,^  the  referee  in  the  case,  at  his  death  left  among 
his  papers  his  book  of  minutes  on  this  case  of  "  Mary  B.  Eddy 
vs.  G.  H.  Tuttle  et  cil" — written  out  in  long  hand,  which  throws 
light  on  Mrs.  Glover's  methods  of  teaching  and  on  her  relation 
to  her  pupils.  Judge  Choate's  notes  on  Stanley's  testimony 
are  in  part  as  follows : 

I  went  to  Mrs,  Eddy  for  the  purpose  of  taking  lessons — She  pretended 
to  teach  me — She  never  taught  me  anything — I  never  told  anybody  I  prac- 
tised her  method. 

I  was  acquainted  with  Dr.  Kennedy  in  Lynn.  He  practised  physical 
manipulation.  He  first  led  me  to  commence  practice,  etc. — My  wife  was 
doctored  by  Dr.  Kennedy — My  wife  told  me  Mrs.  Eddy  wanted  to  see  me. 
I  went,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  said  she  was  about  starting  a  class  for  others 
like  me — She  said  she  had  manuscripts,  not  books,  etc.  She  said  she 
taught  setting  bones  and  obstetrics — she  said  she  could  teach  me  in  six 
weeks  to  be  as  good  a  physician  as  any  in  the  city.  She  wanted  $100. 
I  said  I  was  too  poor  and  could  not  pay — I  left.     My  wife  and  I  went 


1  George    F.    Choate   of    Salem    was    for   many   years   probate   judge   in   Essex 
County,  Mass. 


14,2        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

again  in  the  evening,  and  she  urged  me — finally  I  paid  her  $35  advance. 
Then  I  saw  Tuttle  with  a  manuscript.  He  said  to  get  one  to  copy.  I 
got  paper.  I  asked  her  to  postpone  my  lessons  till,  etc. — She  said  you 
don't  require  to  eat  in  order  to  live.  I  said  yes.  She  said  she  had 
got  so  far  that  she  could  live  without  eating.  She  called  me  and  Tuttle 
to  a  room,  showed  me  a  paper.  When  she  asked  us  to  sign,  I  objected— 
She  said  when  we  had  learned  this  and  the  other  one  (manuscript)  which 
she  would  have  for  us,  she  would  go  with  us  and  find  a  place,  etc.,  and 
on  these  conditions,  i.  e.,  that  she  would  teach  us  obstetrics,  setting 
bones,  and  would  go  with  us  and  find  place,  etc.,  I  signed  the  agreement.^ 

She  said  she  always  went  with  students  to  see  them  well  located,  that 
she  required  this  agreement — ^that  she  furnished  other  manuscripts,  that  this 
one  was  only  a  commencement. 

She  turned  me  out  of  the  class  at  the  end  of  three  weeks.  She  told 
me  I  couldn't  practise  her  method  anyway  because  I  was  a  Baptist — We 
were  to  have  a  six  weeks'  course,  and  it  was  at  end  of  two  weeks  she 
told  me  to  leave. 

Finding  that  I  could  have  a  good  effect  upon  my  wife  when  she  was 
sick  and  would  have  severe  coughing  spells,  I  thought  likely  I  could  have 
a  good  effect  upon  others.  I  saw  what  was  in  those  manuscripts  and 
asked  her  when  the  others  she  spoke  of  were  coming.  I  asked  her  what 
to  do  if  called  to  a  person  with  a  broken  limb — She  said  if  so,  tell  them 
there  isn't  any  broken  limb,  that  it  is  all  belief,  etc. 

The  testimony  of  George  H.  Tuttle,  in  the  same  suit,  is 
recorded  in  Judge  Choate's  minutes  as  follows : 

In  1870  I  knew  Mrs.  Eddy — was  a  student  of  hers.  My  sister  was 
being  attended  by  Dr.  Kennedy,  and  through  my  sister  I  was  induced 
to  go  up  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  with  Dr.  Stanley  and  my  sister.  We  signed 
an  agreement — This  is  the  agreement — She  showed  us  how  all  diseases 
could  be  cured  and  that  there  was  no  sort  of  disease  that  she  could  not 
cure — Said   that  she  would  make  us  more  successful  than   any   physician. 

Tlie  instructions  were  simply  that  we  were  to  understand  the  teachings 
of  the  manuscript  and  that  fully  understanding  it  we  should  be  able 
to  heal  all  disease — We  took  lessons  for  a  week  and  a  half  to  two  weeks, 
in  the  evenings  only,— but  every  day,  I  think— There  used  to  be  an  abundance 
of  talk  between  her  and  Stanley — Considerable  misunderstanding — about 
payments — and  about  his  religion.  She  said  that  he  couldn't  be  a  success 
in  this  line  so  long  as  he  adhered  to  the  Baptist  faith. 


^Thc  text  of  this  agreement  is  given  above. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  143 

1  She  said  she  could  walk  on  the  water — Could  live  without  eating — He 
disputed  with  her — Offered  to  stand  it  without  eating  as  long  as  she,  and 
she  backed  down — She  was  to  enable  us  to  heal  all  diseases — bone-setting — 
obstetrics — and  to  treat  everything  successfully, — and  she  was  to  go  with 
us  and  see  that  we  had  success. 

She  used  to  hold  up  consumption  and  tell  us  that  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  lungs — no  liver — and  they  were  all  imagination — She  became 
dissatisfied  sometimes  with  him  (Stanley)  and  sometimes  with  me — Finally 
she  recalled  the  manuscripts,  claiming  that  she  wanted  to  make  some 
alterations.  I  haven't  got  mine  back,  but  she  gave  me  another  one  finally. 
This  is  the  one.  Our  instructions  ceased — She  had  taken  our  manuscripts, 
and  we  were  literally  turned  out — I  learned  from  Stanley  that  he  had 
been  dismissed. 

We  went  to  see  her  and  demanded  our  manuscripts— Did  not  get  them — 
She  complained  of  him,  said  she  was  dissatisfied — that  he  had  fallen  from 
grace  and  was  going  back  on  it — was  attracted  to  the  Baptist  belief, 
etc.,  and  he  could  not  go  on — Dr.  Stanley  and  I  went  up  together  for 
the  manuscripts.     I  don't  remember  the  talk,  but  there  were  faultfindings. 

She  was  dissatisfied  with  him — because  he  didn't  pay — and  with  his 
dulness  and  inability  to  comprehend  it  (her  Science) — In  the  first  place 
she  had  held  out  to  us  that  the  knowledge  of  her  principle  and  the 
possession  of  this  power  would  surely  attract  patients  to  us,  so  that  we 
couldn't  fail  to  get  patients — She  said  she  had  seen  the  dead  raised — I 
didn't  know  if  dead  could  be  raised — I  in  part  believed  that  those  appar- 
ently dead  had  been   raised. 

I  got  treatment  by  Dr.  Kennedy— In  as  much  as  she  sent  us  out  to 
Dr.  Kennedy  for  a  (practical)  example,  I  suppose, — She  taught  rubbing, 
putting  hand  in  water  and  upon  the  stomach,  etc. 

She  claimed  that  Stanley  must  surrender  everything,  surrender  the 
Baptist  as  every  other  creed — At  the  time  we  went  for  our  manuscripts 
we  were  both  turned  out — Stanley  gave  her  a  piece  of  his  mind — told  her 
she  was  a  fraud,  etc. 

I  never  regularly  practised,  because  I  never  understood  it. 

Stanlej^  said  to  her  she  was  a  fraud  in  getting  the  manuscripts  back 
and  generally — He  was  very  mistrustful  throughout.  I  don't  think  he  had 
studied  even  the  three  weeks  out. 

She  said  she  would  give  us  other  manuscripts  in  reference  to  bone 
setting — I  don't  remember  what  she  said  about  obstetrics;  she  said  generally 
that  he  would  have  only  to  walk  into  the  room  and  be  filled  with  the 
understanding,  and  all  pain  would  disappear — I  don't  know  but  that  some- 
thing further  was  to  be  done  in  cases  of  bone  setting. 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  took  the  stand,  she  said : 


lU        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

I  told  the  defendant  it  was  a  very  good  method  and  better  than  I  had 
found  before  of  healing  sick.  I  taught  him  the  method.  I  told  him  it 
was  through  the  action  of  mind  upon  the  body— Don't  recollect  that  I  said 
it  would  cure  all  diseases.  I  didn't  limit  or  unlimit  it.  I  don't  know 
that  I  meant  for  him  to  understand  that  it  will  heal  everything— I  presume 
I  intended  him  to  understand  that  it  was  a  better  method  than  any  other. 
I  don't  think  I  ever  told  any  student  that  it  would  heal  every  disease. 
I  cannot  give  you  an  explanation — you  have  not  studied  it.  The  principle 
is  mind  operating  on  the  body. 

The  mind  is  cause  of  disease — Through  mind  scarlet  fever  and  diph- 
theria are  cured — I  have  found  that  through  the  action  of  mind  I  could 
cure,  as  I  have  done,  apoplexy,  paralysis,  etc., — Heart  disease,  enlargement 
of  heart,  consumption  are  cured  by  mind — I  have  cured  cases  of  con- 
sumption  found  hopeless  by  action   of  mind,  blindness,  deafness,  etc. 

The  Prisoner  of  Chillon  found  that  gray  hairs  are  produced  through 
the  mind — I  haven't  tried  my  system  on  old  age  yet. 

I  didn't  promise  to  teach  him  bone  setting  or  obstetrics.  Nor  that  I 
would  furnish  other  manuscripts,  nor  that  I  would  go  with  him  to  find 
his  place,  etc.  Might  have  said  I  would  make  him  a  good  physician — 
I  taught  him  the  application  of  hands  and  water — He  told  me  he  hadn't 
the  means  to  pay  me  and  that  if  I  would  take  him  by  installments,  he 
would  study — I  didn't  dismiss  him,  but  he  said  "  I  understand  enough 
now  to  do  more  than  any  of  your  students,"  that  he  knew  enough  now 
to  go  right  into  practice. 

I  never  tauglit  mesmerism.  I  did  teach  the  laying  on  of  hands — not 
with  power — I  did  teach  manipulation  in  'sixty-seven,  'sixty-eight  and 
'sixty-nine  and  in  'seventy — I  ceased — I  can't  tell  the  date — Can't  tell  if 
'seventy,  'seventy-one. 

I  did  teach  Mr.  Stanley  manipulation — that  was  not  my  principle,  it 
was  my  method — My  method  was  metaphysical — I  taught  it — I  don't  know 
for  what — it  was  because  I  saw  a  hand  helped  me — I  thought  it  was  a 
good  method — I  can't  say  whether  it  is  a  science,  I  can't  say  whether 
a  part  or  the  whole  of  it  is  a  science — if  it  is  practised  right  it  is  a 
science — that  part  which  is  eflFective  and  heals  the  sick  Is  a  science — I 
don't  know  as  I  can  explain  it.  I  do  not  claim  it  as  a  discovery  (manipula- 
tion), /  had  known  of  it  always.  Can't  tell  if  I  knew  of  this  will  power 
before  I  knew  Dr.  Quimby — It  is  not  always  necessary  to  know  what  is 
the  belief. 

I  should  generally  require  them  (my  students)  to  keep  the  ten  com- 
mandments—Should  require   them  to  be  moral. 

I  can  argue  to  myself  that  striking  my  hand  upon  the  table  will  not  pro- 
duce i)ain— I  don't  think  I  could  produce  the  effect  that  this  knife  would  not 
produce  a  wound,  but  that  I  could  argue  myself  out  of  the  pain.     I  have  not 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  145 

claimed  to  have  gone  as  far  as  that.  I  have  said  that  belongs  to  future  time. 
I  can  alleviate — I  cannot  prevent  a  broken  bone.  I  would  send  for  a  surgeon 
and  set  the  bone — and  after  that  I  would  alleviate  the  pain  and  inflammation. 
Can't  do  more  in  my  present  development — /  have  seen  the  dead  in 
understanding  raised  '^The  infant  is  the  son  of  the  parent  and  the 
parents'  mind  governs  its  mind — Through  the  parents'  mind  I  cure  the 
infant. 

Before  1872  I  taught  manipulation  and  the  use  of  water. 

That  was  not  all  I  taught — I  never  said  that  was  the  science,  but  I 
said  it  was  a  method,  and  imtil  I  saw  a  student  doing  great  evil,  etc.* 

Richard  Kennedy  in  his  testimony  said: 

I  went  to  Lynn  to  practise  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  Our  partnership  was  only 
in  the  practice,  not  in  her  teaching. 

I  practised  healing  the  sick  by  physical  manipulation — The  mode  was 
operating  upon  the  head  giving  vigorous  rubbing — This  was  a  part  of  her 
system  that  I  had  learned — The  special  thing  she  was  to  teach  me  was 
the  science  of  healing  by  soul  power — I  have  never  been  able  to  come 
to  knowledge  of  that  principle — She  gave  me  a  great  deal  of  instruction 
of  the  so-called  principle,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  understand  it — She 
claimed  that  it  would  cure  advanced  stages  of  consumption  and  the  worse 
cases  of  violent  disease,  that  these  were  but  trifles  under  her  Science. 

I  was  there  at  the  time  Stanley  was  there — I  made  the  greatest  effort 
to  practise  upon  her  principle,  and  I  have  never  had  any  proof  that  I 
had  attained  to  it  or  had  any  success  from  it. 

I  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  instructions — She  told  me  that  she  had 
expelled  Mr.  Stanley  from  the  class — of  his  incompetency  to  understand 
her  science — that  it  was  impossible  to  convince  him  of  the  folly  of  his 
times — that  his  faith  in  a  personal  God  and  prayer  teas  such  that  she 
could  not  overcome  it — She  used  the  word  Baptist  in  connection  with  him 
because  he  loas  a  Baptist — hut  it  was  the  same  with  all  other  creeds. 

So  long  as  they  believed  in  a^  personal  God  and  the  response  to  prayer, 
they  cotdd,  not  progress  in  the  scientific  religion — I  performed  the  manipu- 
lation of  Mr.  Stanley  as  follows: 

Mrs.  Eddy  requested  me  to  rub  Mr.  Stanley's  head  and  to  lay  special 
stress  upon  the  idea  that  there  was  no  personal  God,  while  I  was  rubbing 
him. 

I  never  entirely  gave  up  my  belief  in  a  personal  God,  though  my  belief 
was   pretty   well   shaken   up. 


'  See  letter   to   W.    W.   Wrisrht   on  page   149. 
*  Reference    to    Richard   Kennedy. 


146        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

In  rendering  a  decision  In  favour  of  Tuttle  and  Stanley, 
Judge   Choate  said: 

Upon  a  careful  examination  I  do  not  find  any  instructions  given  by 
her  nor  any  explanations  of  her  "science"  or  "method  of  healing"  which 
appear  intelligible  to  ordinary  comprehension,  or  which  could  in  any  way 
be  of  value  in  fitting  the  Defendant  as  a  competent  and  successful  prac- 
titioner of  any  intelligible  art  or  method  of  healing  the  sick,  and  I  am 
of  opinion  that  the  consideration  for  the  agreement  has  wholly  failed,  and 
I   so  find. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  her  first  class  was  organised,  Mrs. 
Glover  raised  her  tuition  fee  to  three  hundred  dollars,  which 
price  was  never  afterward  changed.  Concerning  her  reasons 
for  fixing  upon  this  sum,  Mrs.  Eddy  says : 

When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  my  instruction  in  Christian 
Science  Mind-healing,  I  could  think  of  no  financial  equivalent  for  an 
impartation  of  a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which  heals;  but  I  was 
led  to  name  three  hundred  dollars  as  the  price  for  each  pupil  in  one 
course  of  lessons  at  my  college,^a  startling  sum  for  tuition  lasting  barely 
three  weeks.  This  amount  greatly  trouliled  me.  I  shrank  from  asking 
it,  but  was  finally  led,  by  a  strange  providence,  to  accept  this  fee. 

God  has  since  shown  me,  in  multitudinous  ways,  the  wisdom  of  this 
decision;  and  I  beg  disinterested  people  to  ask  my  loyal  students  if  they 
consider  three  hundred  dollars  any  real  equivalent  for  my  instruction 
during  twelve  half-days,  or  even  in  half  as  many  lessons.' 

In  1888  Mrs.  Eddy  reduced  the  course  of  twelve  lessons  to 
seven,  but  the  tuition  fee  still  remained  three  hundred  dollars. 
In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  December,  1888,  she  pub- 
lished the  following  notice: 

Having  reached  a  place  in  teaching  where  my  students  in  Christian 
Science  are  taught  more  during  seven  lessons  in  the  primary  class  than  they 
were  formerly  in  twelve,  and  taught  all  that  is  profitable  at  one  time, 
hereafter  the  primary  class  will  include  seven  lessons  only.  As  this  number 
of  lessons  is  of  more  value  than  twice  this  number  in  times  past,  no  change 
is  made  in  the  price  of  tuition,  three  hundred  dollars.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy. 


lietrovpection  and  Introspection,  p.  71. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  147 

Most  of  Mrs.  Glover's  early  students  were  artisans;  many 
of  them  shoe-workers.  Lynn  was  then  a  city  of  about  thirty 
thousand  inhabitants,  and  shoemaking  was,  as  it  now  is,  the 
large  and  characteristic  industry.  Many  of  the  farmers  about 
the  country  had  little  shoeshops  in  their  backyards,  and  during 
the  winter  season  took  out  piecework  from  the  factories.  The 
majority  of  the  village  and  country  boys  had  had  something  to 
do  with  shoemaking  before  they  went  into  business  or  chose  a  pro- 
fession, and  when  Whittier  went  from  the  farm  to  attend  the 
academy  at  Haverhill,  he  was  able  to  pay  his  way  by  making 
slippers.  Among  Mrs.  Glover's  first  students  were  S.  P.  Ban- 
croft, a  shoe-worker ;  George  W.  Barry,  foreman  in  a  shoeshop ; 
Dorcas  Rawson,  a  shoe-worker,  and  her  sister  Mrs.  Miranda  R. 
Rice;  Charles  S.  Stanley,  a  shoe-worker;  Miss  Frances  Spinney, 
who  had  a  shop  in  which  she  employed  a  score  of  girls  to  sew 
on  women's  shoes ;  Mrs.  Otis  Vickary ;  George  H.  Allen,  who 
was  employed  in  his  father's  box  factory,  and  Wallace  W. 
Wright,  then  accountant  in  a  bank. 

Liberal  religious  ideas  flourished  in  New  England  thirty-five 
years  ago,  and  although  one  woman  left  the  class  because 
"  Mrs.  Glover  was  taking  Christ  away  from  her,"  most  of  the 
students  were  ready  to  accept  the  idea  of  an  impersonal  God 
and  to  deny  the  existence  of  matter.  Even  Dorcas  Rawson, 
who  was  an  ardent  Methodist  and  had  "  professed  holiness," 
unhesitatingly  accepted  the  statement  that  God  was  Principle. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  her  teaching  Mrs.  Glover  had 
with  her  students  those  differences  which  later  made  her  career 
so  stormy.  After  the  defection  of  Stanley  and  Tuttle,  Mrs. 
Vickary,  dissatisfied  v/ith  her  instruction,  sued  for  and  recov- 


148        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ortd  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  doHars  which  she  had  paid 
in  advance  for  tuition."  Wallace  Wright,  one  of  the  most 
intelligent  of  her  early  students,  publicly  attacked  in  the  Lynn 
press  the  "  Moral  Science,"  as  it  was  then  called,  which  he  had 
studied  under  Mrs.  Glover. 

Wallace  W.  Wright  was  the  son  of  a  Universalist  clergyman 
of  Lynn,  and  a  brother  of  Carroll  D.  Wright,  who  afterward 
became  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labour.  He  was  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  most  promising  young  business  men  in 
Lynn,  when  he  was  drowned  in  the  wreck  of  the  City  of  Colum- 
bus, off  Gayhead  Light,  January  18,  1884.  W^hen  he  first 
studied  under  Mrs.  Glover,  he  was  very  enthusiastic  over  her 
Science  and,  much  to  his  own  surprise,  made  several  successful 
demonstrations. 

Before  he  entered  her  class,  he  had  made  careful  inquiries 
about  the  nature  of  what  she  taught.  Both  he  and  his  father 
were  interested  in  her  claims  and  wished  to  pin  Mrs.  Glover  down 
to  exact  statements  concerning  her  Science.  He  wrote  her  a 
letter,  asking  her  nine  questions,  and  requesting  an  answer  to 
each  in  writing. 

{Here  follow  the  most  significant  of  Mr.  Wright's  questions, 
together  with  Mrs.  Glover's  answers)  : '' 

QuESTiox  1 — Upon  what  principle  is  your  science  founded? 
Answer   1 — On  God,  tlie  principle  of  man. 


•The  suit  Mrs  Otis  Vickary  versus  IMary  M.  B.  Patterson,  was  entered  In 
tlio  Lynn  Police  Court  on  Aiisiist  ?,.  1872.  (Mrs.  Olover  had  not  vet  obtained 
L^,*'^L  "*.  °  '-1.^''  Y^'  f"™«'i"  name)  The  Lynn  Five  Cent  Savings-Bank  was 
51,?^^,  ''^  ''^  ^J","^*r-  J^r^^  ^he  Savinps-Bank  and  the  Defendant  were  6e- 
rtorn/ fU,!^'i?"'"'t?,*'-^' J«"  fai'u''<'  to  appear  and  answer,  and  judgment  was  ren- 
aered  foi  the  1  laintiff  and  execution  issued  for  the  amount  of  $150  and  $5.73 
lor  costs,   on    August   0th. 

mi'f«'tbn?'n^''^^  {'^'^'■^  question  and  Mrs.  Glover's  answer,  in  which  she  ad- 
S^arch  for  nvon^fv  «'""  '^'•«^tised  her  Science  and  had  made  it  a  subject  of  re- 
search for  twcnty-hve  years,  was  quoted  on  page  101. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  149 

Question  2 — Is  a  knowledge  of  anatomy  necessary  to  the  success  of 
the   student   or   practitioner? 

Answer  2 — It  is  a  hindrance  instead  of  help,  anatomy  belongs  to 
knowledge,  the  Science  I  teach,  to  God,  one  is  the  tree  whereof  wisdom 
forbade  man  to  partake,  the  other  is  the  "  tree  of  life." 

Question  3 — Will  it  meet  the  demands  of  extreme,  acute  cases? 

Answer  3 — Yes,  beyond  all  other  known  methods  of  healing;  it  is 
in  acute  and  extreme  cases  that  this  science  is  seen  most  clearly  in  its 
demonstrations    over    matter. 

Question  4 — Is  a  knowledge  of  disease  necessary  to  effect  cures? 

Answer  4 — This  "  knowledge  "  is  what  science  comes  to  destroy. 

Question   7 — Does  it  admit   of  universal  application? 
Answer  7 — Yes,  even  to  raising  or  restoring  those  called  dead.     I  have 
witnessed  this  myself,  therefore  I  testify  of  what  I  have  seen.* 

In  June,  1871,  Mr.  Wright  went  to  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  and 
there  entered  into  practice.  Of  this  experience  he  afterward 
wrote : 

The  9th  of  last  June  found  me  in  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  as  assistant 
to  a  former  student.  We  met  with  good  success  in  a  majority  of  our 
cases,  but  some  of  them  utterly  refused  to  yield  to  the  treatment.  Soon 
after  settling  in  Knoxville  I  began  to  question  the  propriety  of  calling 
this  treatment  "  Moral  Science "  instead  of  mesmerism.  Away  from  the 
influence  of  argument  which  the  teacher  of  this  so-called  science  knows 
how  to  bring  to  bear  upon  students  with  such  force  as  to  outweigh  any 
attempts  they  may  make  at  the  time  to  oppose  it,  I  commenced  to  think 
more  independently,  and  to  argue  with  myself  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
positions  we  were  called  upon  to  take.  The  result  of  this  course  was  to 
convince  me   that   I   had   studied   the  science  of  mesmerism.' 

Wright  accordingly  wrote  to  Mrs.  Glover  from  Knoxville, 
asking  her  to  refund  the  three  hundred  dollars  which  he  had  paid 
for  his  tuition  and  also  to  compensate  him  for  the  two  hundred 
dollars  which  his  venture  had  cost  him.     On  his  return  to  Lynn 


*  In  Mrf3.  Eddy's  testimony  in  hor  suit  against  Stanloy  and  Tuttlo,  printed  in 
tliis  article,  she  states  that  she  has  seen  the  dead  in  understanding  awaken 
through  her  Science. — See  page  145. 

*  Lynn  Transcript,  January  13,  1872. 


150        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

he  called  upon  Mrs.  Glover  and  repeated  this  request.  On 
January  13,  1872,  Mr.  Wright  published  a  signed  letter  in 
the  Lynn  Transcript,  stating  that  he  believed  Moral  Science 
and  Mesmerism  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  warning 
other  students  against  being  misled.  Mrs.  Glover  replied  to 
this  letter  in  the  same  paper,  January  20th,  stating  that  Mr. 
Wright  had  made  an  unreasonable  demand  to  which  she  had 
refused  to  accede,  and  that  he  was  now  attacking  her  Science 
from  motives  of  revenge: 

'Tis  but  a  few  weeks  since  he  called  on  me  and  threatened  that  if  I 
did  not  refund  his  tuition  fee  and  pay  him  $200  extra  he  would  prevent 
my  ever  having  another  class  in  this  city.  Said  he,  "  my  simple  purpose 
now  is  revenge,  and  I  will  have  it " — and  this,  too,  immediately  after 
saying  to  individuals  in  this  city  that  the  last  lesson  the  class  received 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  was  alone  worth  all  he  had  paid  for  tuition. 
.  .  .  Very  soon  after  this,  however,  I  received  a  letter  from  him 
requesting  me  to  pay  him  over  and  above  all  I  had  received  from  him,  or 
in  case  I  should  not,  he  would  ruin  the  Science.  I  smiled  at  the  threat 
and  told  a  lady  at  my  side,  "If  you  see  him,  tell  him  first  to  take  a 
bucket  and  dip  the  Atlantic  dry,  and  then  try  his  powers  on  this  next 
scheme."     .     .     . 

JNIy  few  remaining  years  will  be  devoted  to  the  cause  I  have  espoused, 
viz: — to  teach  and  to  demonstrate  the  Moral  and  Physical  Science  that 
can  heal  the  sick.  Well  knowing  as  I  do  that  God  hath  bidden  me,  I 
shall  steadfastly  adhere  to  my  purpose  to  benefit  my  sufi'ering  fellow- 
beings,  even  though  it  be  amid  the  most  malignant  misrepresentation  and 
persecution. 

Mary  M.  B.  Glover 

This  controversy  continued  several  weeks,  occupying  columns 
of  the  Transcript,  and  on  February  10th,  Mr.  Wright  issued 
the  following  challenge: 

And  now  in  conclusion  I  publicly  challenge  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Glover 
to  demonstrate  her  science  by  any  of  the  following  methods,  promising, 
if  she  is  successful,  to  retract  all  I  have  said,  and  humble  myself  by 
asking  forgiveness  publicly  for  the  course  I  have  taken.  Her  refusal  to  do 
this,  by   silence  or  otherwise,  shall  be  considered  a   failure  of  her  cause: 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  151 

1st:     To  restore  the  dead  to  life  again  as  she  claims  she  can. 
2nd:     To   walk   upon   the  water   without   the   aid   of   artificial   means   as 
she  claims  she  can. 

3rd:  To  live  24  hours  without  air,  or  2i:  days  without  nourishment  of 
any  kind  without  its  having  any  effect  upon  her. 

4th:     To  restore  sight  when  the  optic  nerve  has  been  destroj'ed. 
5th:     To  set  and  heal  a  broken  bone  without  the  aid  of  artificial  means. 

I  am,  respectfully, 

W.    W.    Wright 

At  this  point  Mrs.  Glover  retired  from  the  controversy, 
but  five  of  her  students,  George  W.  Barry,  Amos  Ingalls,  George 
H.  Allen,  Dorcas  Rawson,  and  Miranda  Rice  wrote  a  protest 
to  the  Lynn  Transcript,  February  17th,  ignoring  Mr.  Wright's 
challenge,  but  defending  their  teacher  and  her  Science,  and 
declaring  that  his  charges  against  both  were  untrue.  Mr. 
Wright  had  the  last  word  and  ended  the  controversy,  February 
2-lth,  by  exultantly  declaring  that  Mrs.  Glover  and  her  Science 
were  practically  dead  and  buried ;  which  certainly  suggests  that 
the  gift  of  prophecy  was  denied  him. 

Mrs.  Glover's  pen  at  this  period  was  not  employed  exclusively 
in  controversy.  In  the  Lynn  Transcript,  November  4,  1871, 
appear  the  following  verses : 

LINES  ON  RECEIVING  SOME  GRAPES 
By   Mary   Baker   Glo\'er 

Beautiful  grapes  would  I  were  thee, 

Clustering  round  a  parent  stem, 
The  blessing  of  my  God   to  be. 

In  woodland,  bower  or  glen; 

Where   friend  or   foe  had  never  sought 

The  angels  "  born  of  apes," 
And    breathed    the    disappointed    thought. 

Behold!     They're   sour    grapes. 


152        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

And   such,   methinks,   e'en    Nature   shows 

The    fate   of    Beauty's   power — 
Admired  in  parlour,  grotto,  groves, 

But  faded,  O  how  sour! 

Worth, — unlike  beauty— fadeless,  pure, 

A  blessing  and  most  blest, 
Beyond   the   shadows   will   endure, 

And    give    the   lone    heart    rest. 

For  the  Transcript. 

Though  Mrs.  Glover's  classes  grew  larger,  and  Richard  Ken- 
nedy's practice  steadily  increased,  frequent  disagreements  oc- 
curred between  him  and  his  teacher.  He  found  that  the  Quimby 
method  was,  like  every  other  method  of  treating  disease,  limited 
in  its  scope,  and  urged  Mrs.  Glover  to  modify  her  sweeping 
statements  concerning  its  possibilities — which  greatly  angered 
her.  His  common-sense  rebelled  when  Mrs.  Glover  told  her 
students  that  she  could  hold  her  finger  in  the  flame  of  a  candle 
without  feeling  pain,  and  her  grim  ambition  rather  repelled 
him.  Although  he  was  almost  filial  in  his  dutifulness,  her 
tyranny  in  trivial  matters  tried  even  his  genial  temper.  About 
a  year  after  they  opened  their  office,  Miss  Magoun  married 
John  M.  Dame  of  Lynn,  and  gave  up  her  school,  leaving  the 
Moral  Scientists  to  sublet   from  another  tenant. 

On  Thanksgiving  night  of  that  year  (1871)  Mrs.  Glover 
and  Kennedy  went  to  Mrs.  Dame's  new  home  to  play  cards. 
At  the  card-table  Kennedy  and  Mrs.  Glover  played  against 
each  other,  Kennedy  and  his  partner  playing,  apparently, 
the  better  game.  Mrs.  Glover,  who  could  not  endure  to  be 
beaten  in  anything,  lost  her  temper  and  declared  that  Richard 
had   cheated.     The  young  man  was   chagrined  at  being  thus 


RICHARD  KENNEDY 
From  a  photograph  taken  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  in  1871 


Photograph  by  Bowers 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  153 

taken  to  task  before  his  friends.  The  frequent  scenes  caused 
by  Mrs.  Glover's  jealous  and  exacting  disposition  had  worn 
out  his  patience.  When  he  and  Mrs.  Glover  reached  home  that 
night,  he  tore  his  contract  with  her  in  two  and  threw  it  into 
the  fire,  telling  her  that  he  would  no  longer  consider  himself 
bound  by  it.  Mrs.  Glover  threatened  and  entreated,  but  to  no 
purpose,  and  even  when  she  fell  to  the  floor  in  a  swoon  Kennedy 
was  not  to  be  moved. 

From  that  night  Kennedy  prepared  to  leave  Mrs.  Glover. 
Their  separation  took  place  in  the  spring  of  1872.  When  they 
settled  their  accounts,  Mrs.  Glover  was  left  with  about  six 
thousand  dollars  in  money.  While  they  remained  together, 
Kennedy  had  paid  their  living  expenses  and  had  given  Mrs. 
Glover  half  of  whatever  money  was  left  from  his  practice,  while 
Mrs.  Glover's  income  from  teaching  was  entirely  her  own. 

After  this  separation  Kennedy  took  another  office  in  Lynn, 
and  Mrs.  Glover  remained  for  some  months  in  their  old  rooms. 
She  afterward  boarded  with  the  Chadwells  on  Shepard  Street, 
later  stayed  at  the  home  of  Dorcas  Rawson,  and  still  later  lived 
for  some  time  in  a  boarding-house  at  Number  9  Broad  Street, 
opposite  the  house  which  she  eventually  purchased. 

The  Essex  County  registry  of  deeds  shows  that  on  March  31, 
1875,  Francis  E.  Besse,  in  consideration  of  $5,650,  deeded  to 
"  Mary  M.  B.  Glover,  a  widow  woman  of  Lynn,"  the  property 
at  Number  8  Broad  Street,  which  became  the  first  official  head- 
quarters of  Christian  Science.^"  This  house,  a  small  two-and-a- 
half  story  building,  Is  still  standing.  When  Mrs.  Glover  moved 
in,   shortly  after  her  purchase,  she  occupied  only  the  second 


"When  Mrs.   Glover  bought  this  property,   she  assumed  the  mortgage  on  It 
of  $2,800. 


15  i  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

floor,  renting  the  first  floor  of  the  house  to  a  succession  of 
tenants.  She  used  as  her  study  a  httle  low-ceiled  room  on  the 
third  floor,  lighted  by  one  window  and  a  skylight.  Here  she 
completed  the  manuscript  of  Science  and  Health,  read  the 
proofs  of  the  first  edition,  and  prepared  the  second  and  third 
editions.  The  Christian  Science  reading-room  of  Lynn  is  now 
in  this  building.  At  the  time  of  the  June  communions  ^^  at 
the  Mother  Church  in  Boston,  thousands  of  people  go  out  to 
visit  the  little  skylight  room  which  they  regard  as  the  cradle 
of  their  faith.  The  room  has,  of  course,  been  changed  since 
Mrs.  Eddy  worked  there.  The  woodwork  has  been  painted 
white,  and  the  walls  and  ceiling  are  now  pale  blue  and  cream 
colour,  dotted  with  gold  stars.  None  of  the  original  furniture 
remains ;  but  the  chair  and  table  are  said  to  be  very  like  those 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  used,  and  on  the  shelf  is  a  clock  like  that 
which  used  to  count  the  hours  while  Mrs.  Eddy  measured  time 
out  of  existence.  On  the  low  wall  there  hangs — not  without  a 
stirring  effect  of  contrast — a  very  light  and  airy  water-colour 
of  the  gray  tower  of  the  original  Mother  Church  in  Boston. 
Over  the  door  is  frescoed  the  First  Commandment: 
"  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  Gods  before  me." 


"Those  yearly  communions  at  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston  have  this  year 
(1908)    been  discontinued  by   order  of  Mrs.   Eddy. 


CHAPTER  X 

MRS.    glover's    influence    OVER    HER    STUDENTS QUIMBY    DIS- 
CREDITED  DANIEL      HARRISON      SPOPFORD MRS.      GLOVEr's 

MARRIAGE  TO   ASA  GILBERT  EDDY 

Whatever  disagreement  Mrs.  Glover  had  with  individual 
students,  their  number  constantly  increased,  and  for  every  de- 
serter there  were  several  new  adherents.  Her  following  grew 
not  only  in  numbers  but  in  zeal;  her  influence  over  her  students 
and  their  veneration  of  her  were  subjects  of  comment  and  aston- 
ishment in  Lynn.  Of  some  of  them  it  could  be  truly  said  that 
they  lived  only  for  and  through  Mrs.  Glover.  They  continued 
to  attend  in  some  manner  to  their  old  occupations,  but  they 
became  like  strangers  to  their  own  families,  and  their  personali- 
ties seemed  to  have  undergone  an  eclipse.  Like  their  teacher, 
they  could  talk  of  only  one  thing  and  had  but  one  vital  interest. 
One  disciple  let  two  of  his  three  children  die  under  metaphysical 
treatment  without  a  murmur.  Another  married  the  woman 
whom  Mrs.  Glover  designated.  Two  students  furnished  the 
money  to  bring  out  her  first  book,  though  Mrs.  Glover  at  that 
time  owned  the  house  in  which  she  lived,  and  her  classes  were 
fairly  remunerative. 

The  closer  students,  who  constituted  Mrs.  Glover's  cabinet 
and  bodyguard,  executed  her  commissions,  transacted  her  busi- 
ness, and  were  always  at  her  call.     To-day  some  of  these  who 

155 


156        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

have  long  been  accounted  as  enemies  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  whom 
she  lias  anathematised  in  print  and  discredited  on  the  witness- 
stand,  still  declare  that  what  they  got  from  her  was  beyond 
equivalent  in  gold  or  silver.  They  speak  of  a  certain  spiritual 
or  emotional  exaltation  which  she  was  able  to  impart  in  her 
classroom ;  a  feeling  so  strong  that  it  was  like  the  birth  of  a 
new  understanding  and  seemed  to  open  to  them  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth.  Some  of  Mrs.  Glover's  students  experienced 
this  in  a  very  slight  degree,  and  some  not  at  all,  but  such  as 
were  imaginative  and  emotional,  and  especially  those  who  had 
something  of  the  mystic  in  their  natures,  came  out  of  her  class- 
room to  find  that  for  them  the  world  had  changed.  They  lived 
by  a  new  set  of  values ;  the  colour  seemed  to  fade  out  of  the 
physical  world  about  them;  men  and  women  became  shadow- 
hke,  and  their  own  humanity  grew  pale.  The  reality  of  pain 
and  pleasure,  sin  and  grief,  love  and  death,  once  denied,  the 
only  positive  thing  in  their  lives  was  their  behef — and  that  was 
aknost  wholly  negation.  One  of  the  students  who  was  closest 
to  Mrs.  Glover  at  that  time  says  that  to  him  the  world  outside 
her  little  circle  seemed  like  a  madhouse,  where  each  inmate  was 
given  over  to  his  delusion  of  love  or  gain  or  ambition,  and  the 
problem  which  confronted  him  was  how  to  awaken  them  from 
the  absurdity  of  their  pursuits.  It  is  but  fair  to  say  that 
occasionally  a  student  was  more  of  a  royalist  than  the  king, 
and  that  Mrs.  Glover  herself  had  a  very  sound  sense  of  material 
values  and  often  reminded  an  extravagant  follower  to  render 
unto  Caesar  what  was  his  due. 

Among  the  enthusiasts  of  Mrs.  Glover's  following  was  Daniel 
Harrison  SpofFord,  who  became  a  very  successful  practitioner 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  157 

of  mental  healing,  and  at  one  time  had  offices  in  Boston,  Haver- 
hill, and  Newburjport,  dividing  his  time  among  the  three 
places.  Spofford  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  Mrs. 
Glover's  students  and  an  important  factor  in  the  early  de- 
velopment of  Christian  Science.^  He  was  born  at  Temple, 
N.  H.,  and  when  he  was  a  boy  of  ten  came  to  eastern  Massa- 
chusetts with  his  brother  and  widowed  mother.  He  was  put 
out  to  work  for  farmers  about  the  country,  and,  although  he 
was  a  frail  boy,  he  did  a  man's  work.  He  was  working  as  a 
watchmaker's  apprentice  when,  in  his  twentieth  year,  he  entered 
the  army.  He  enlisted  in  '61  and  served  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  in  Hooker's  brigade,  until  he  was  mustered  out  in 
'64,  taking  part  in  some  twenty  engagements,  among  them 
Gettysburg  and  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run.  On  his  return 
from  the  army  he  went  to  work  in  a  shoe  factory  in  Lynn. 
He  first  met  Mrs.  Glover  in  1871,  when  she  was  with  Richard 
Kennedy,  and  he  had  access,  through  another  student,  to  the 
manuscripts  from  which  she  taught.  During  the  next  three 
years,  which  he  spent  in  the  South  and  West,  he  carried  these 
manuscripts  with  him  and  studied  them.  He  was  thoughtful 
and  reflective  by  nature,  and  even  when  he  was  a  chore  boy 
on  the  farm  he  read  the  Bible  diligently  and  went  about  his 
work  in  the  barn  and  in  the  field,  pondering  deeply  upon  the 
paradoxes  of  the  old  theology.  He  had  worked  out  a  kind 
of  transcendentalism  of  his  own,  and  he  found  something  in 
the  Quimby  manuscripts  which  satisfied  a  need  of  his  nature. 
When  he  came  back  to  Lynn,  in  the  spring  of  1875,  he  began 
to  experiment  among  his  friends  in  the  healing  power  of  this 

*  Mr.  Spofford  now  lives  opposite  the  old  Whittier  homestead,  on  the  road  be- 
tween Haverhill  and  Amesbury. 


158        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

system,  and  made  several  cures  which  were  much  talked  about. 
Mrs.  Glover  soon  heard  of  this  and  sent  SpofFord  a  letter,  in 
which  she  said:  "  Mr.  Spofford  I  tender  you  a  cordial  invitation 
to  join  my  next  class  and  receive  my  instruction  in  healing  the 
sick  without  medicine,  without  money  and  withoiit  price." 

Spofford,  who  was  then  about  thirty-three  years  of  age, 
accordingly  entered  Mrs.  Glover's  class  in  April,  1875,  and 
in  a  few  weeks  her  teaching  had  become  to  him  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  the  world.  Mr.  SpofFord  still  says  that  no 
price  could  be  put  upon  what  Mrs.  Glover  gave  her  students, 
and  that  the  mere  manuscripts  which  he  had  formerly  studied 
were,  compared  to  her  expounding  of  them,  as  the  printed 
page  of  a  musical  score  compared  to  its  interpretation  by  a 
master.  His  teacher  recognised  in  him  a  mind  singularly 
adapted  to  her  subject,  and  a  nature  sincere  and  free  from 
self-seeking.  She  turned  many  of  her  students  over  to  him  for 
instruction  in  Scriptural  interpretation,  addressed  him  as 
"  Harry,"  and  showed  her  appreciation  of  his  loyalty  by  pre- 
senting to  him,  in  a  silver  case,  the  gold  pen  with  which  Science 
and  Health  was  written. 

In  May,  a  month  after  he  entered  her  class,  Mr.  Spofford 
opened  an  office  in  Lynn  and  put  out  his  sign,  "  Dr.  SpofFord, 
Scientific  Physician."  His  success  was  as  rapid  as  Richard 
Kennedy's  had  been,  although  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  two  men 
more  unlike  than  these,  who  were  perhaps  the  most  intelligent 
and  able  of  all  Mrs.  Glover's  practising  students.  Kennedy 
was  cheerful,  impulsive,  practical,  and  blessed  with  a  warm 
enjoyment  of  the  world  as  it  is.  He  made  a  host  of  friends, 
whom  he  managed  to  see  very  often,  and  always  found  a  thou- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  159 

sand  agreeable  duties  which  he  discharged  punctiliously.  Spof- 
ford  was  an  idealist,  somewhat  tinged  with  the  gentle  melan- 
choly of  the  dreamer — a  t^'pe  with  which  the  literature  of  New 
England  has  made  us  all  familiar.  His  frame  was  delicate,  his 
hands  and  features  finely  cut,  and  his  eyes  were  intense  and 
very  blue  in  colour.  His  voice  was  low,  and  his  manner  gentle 
and  somewhat  aloof. 

Foremost  in  loyalty  among  Mrs.  Glover's  women  students 
was  Mrs.  Miranda  Rice,  who  remained  in  constant  attendance 
upon  her,  acting  as  mediator  between  her  and  recalcitrant 
students,  and  attending  her  in  those  violent  seizures  of  hysteria 
which  continued  to  torture  her.  Mrs.  Rice  says  that  during 
these  attacks  the  poor  woman  would  often  lie  unconscious  for 
hours  together;  at  other  times  she  would  seem  almost  insane, 
would  denounce  all  her  friends,  declare  that  they  were  all  perse- 
cuting and  wronging  her,  and  that  she  would  run  away,  never 
to  come  back. 

In  spite  of  the  hardships  of  her  service,  Mrs.  Rice  remained 
Mrs,  Glover's  friend  for  about  twelve  3^ears — Mrs.  Glover  rarely 
kept  her  friends  so  long.  Mrs.  Rice  always  felt  under  obliga- 
tion to  her  teacher,  for  she  had  paid  no  tuition  when  she 
entered  her  class,  and  one  of  Mrs.  Glover's  most  noted  demon- 
strations— for  years  recounted  in  succeeding  editions  of  Science 
and  Health — -occurred  when  she  attended  Mrs.  Rice  in  childbed. 
Mrs.  Rice  still  affirms  that  the  birth  was  absolutely  painless. 

George  W.  Barry,  a  student  who  avowed  that  Mrs.  Glover 
had  cured  him  of  consumption,  was  long  active  in  her  service 
and  he  always  addressed  her  as  "  Mother."  Once  when  Bronson 
Alcott,  that  undiscouraged  patron  of  metaphysical  cults,  went 


IGO        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

to  Lynn  upon  an  invitation  from  Mrs.  Glover  and  addressed 
lier  class,  he  turned  to  Barry  and,  struck  by  his  youthful 
appearance,  asked,  "  How  old  are  you,  young  man  ?  "  Barry 
replied,  "  I  am  five  years  old,  sir,"  explaining  that  it  was  five 
years  ago  that  he  first  began  to  study  under  Mrs.  Glover.  Two 
years  after  he  had  thus  defined  existence,  Barry  sued  Mrs. 
Glover,  then  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  money  due  him  for  services  to  her 
extending  over  a  period  of  five  years;  some  of  the  instances 
set  forth  in  his  bill  of  particulars  give  an  interesting  glimpse 
of  life  at  Number  8  Broad  Street.  Among  the  services  ren- 
dered, as  stated  in  this  bill,  was :  "  Copying  the  manuscript  of 
the  book  entitled  Science  and  Health,  and  aiding  in  arrange- 
ment of  capital  letters  and  some  of  the  grammatical  construc- 
tions." (The  Referee  in  the  case  found  that  Barry  had  copied 
out  in  long  hand  twenty-five  hundred  pages,  and  allowed  him 
more  than  the  usual  copyist  rate,  "  on  account  of  the  difficulty 
which  a  portion  of  the  pages  presented  to  the  copyist  by  reason 
of  erasures  and  interlineations.")  Other  services  mentioned  in 
Barry's  bill  were :  "  Copying  manuscript  for  classes  and  help- 
ing to  arrange  the  construction  of  some  of  the  sentences  " ; 
"  copying  Mrs.  Glover's  replies  to  W.  W.  Wright's  newspaper 
articles  " ;  "  searching  for  a  publisher  " ;  "  moving  her  goods 
from  the  tenement  on  South  Common  Street,  Lynn,  i.e.,  dispos- 
ing of  some  at  the  auction  room,  storing  others  in  my  uncle's 
barn,  and  storing  trunks  and  goods  at  my  father's  house, 
clearing  up  rooms,  paying  rent  for  the  same  " ;  "  attending 
to  her  financial  business,  i.e.,  withdrawing  monies  from  Boston 
savings  banks,  going  to  Boston  to  get  United  States  coupon 
bonds,  taking  in  my  care  two  mortgages,"  etc. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  161 

Further  services  mentioned  in  Barry's  bill  were :  "  Aiding  in 
buying  and  caring  for  the  place  at  Number  8  Broad  Street; 
aiding  in  selection  of  carpets  and  furniture,  helping  to  move, 
putting  down  carpets,  etc.,  and  working  in  the  garden."  In  his 
bill  of  expenditures  he  said  that  he  had  paid  out  money  on 
Mrs.  Glover's  account  for  rent,  car-fare,  postage,  stationery, 
printing,  express  charges,  and  boots.  In  her  reply  Mrs.  Glover 
stated  that  she  had  repaid  him  for  all  these  expenditures,  and 
that  the  boots  were  a  present  from  the  plaintiff.  On  the  wit- 
ness-stand she  further  stated  that  she  taught  him  "  how  to 
make  an  interrogation  point  and  what  capitals  to  attach  to 
the  names  of  the  Deity."  She  affirmed  that  she  had  cured  him 
of  disease.  "  I  gave  him  mind  as  one  would  treat,  a  patient 
with  material  medicine,"  she  told  the  judge.  Mrs.  Glover  later 
reproachfully  published  some  verses  which  she  said  Barry  wrote 
her  before  his  defection : 


O,   mother  mine,   God   grant   I   ne'er   forget, 
Whatever  be  my  grief  or  what  my  joy, 
The    unmeasured,    unextinguishable    debt 
I  owe  to  thee,  but  find  my  sweet  employ 
Ever   through   thy   remaining   days   to   be 
To  thee  as  faithful  as  thou  wast  to  me." 


Surrounded  as  she  was  by  these  admiring  students,  who 
hung  upon  her  words  and  looked  to  her  for  the  ultimate  wisdom, 
Mrs.  Glover  gradually  became  less  acutely  conscious  of  Quimby's 
relation  to  the  healing  system  she  taught.  She  herself  was 
being  magnified  and  exalted  daily  by  her  loyal  disciples,  in 
whose  extravagant  devotion  she  saw  repeated  the  attitude  of 

"Science  and  Health    (1881),  Vol.   II.,  p.   15. 


162        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

many  of  Quimby's  patients — herself  among  them — to  their 
healer.  Instead  of  pointing  always  backward  and  reiterating, 
"  I  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimhy,"  etc.,  she  began  to  acquiesce 
in  the  belief  of  her  students,  who  regarded  her  as  the  source 
of  what  she  taught.  Her  infatuated  students,  indeed,  desired 
to  see  no  further  than  their  teacher,  and  doubtless  would  not 
have  looked  beyond  her  had  she  pointed.  Consequently  she  said 
less  and  less  about  Quimby  as  time  went  on,  and  by  1875,  when 
her  first  book,  Science  and  Health,  was  issued,  she  had  crowded 
him  altogether  out  of  his  "  science."  ^ 

In  the  history  of  the  Quimby  manuscript,  from  which  she 
taught  during  the  five  years,  1870-1875,  one  can  trace  the 
steps  by  which  Mrs.  Glover,  starting  as  the  humble  and  grateful 
patient  of  Quimby,  arrived  at  the  position  of  rival,  and  pre- 
tender to  his  place.  We  have  seen  that  while  she  was  in 
Stoughton,  Mrs.  Glover  wrote  a  preface,  signed  "  Mary  M. 
Glover,"  to  her  copy  of  Quimby's  manuscript,  "  Questions  and 
Answers,"  and  that  she  made  slight  changes  in,  and  additions 
to,  the  text.  In  examining  the  copies  of  this  manuscript  which 
were  given  out  to  her  students  in  Lynn,  1870-1872,  we  find 
that  this  signed  preface  has  been  incorporated  in  the  text,  so 
that  the  manuscript  reads  like  the  composition  of  one  person, 
and  that  instead  of  being  issued  with  a  title-page,  reading 
"  Extracts  from  P.  P.  Quimby's  Writings,"  as  was  the  Stough- 
ton manuscript,  the  copies  given  out  in  Lynn  were  unsigned. 
This  manuscript  Mrs.  Glover  called  "  The  Science  of  Man,  or 
the  Principle  which  Controls  Matter."  In  1870  she  took  out 
a  copyright  upon  a  book  entitled :  The  Science  of  Man  by  which 
and^nValth    °°^^  ^  *^^^"*^  mentton  of  Quimby  in  the  first  edition  of  Science 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  163 

the  Sick  are  Healed  Embracing  Questions  and  Answers  in  Moral 
Science  Arranged  for  the  Learner  by  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Glover. 
This  seems  to  have  been  only  a  precautionary  measure,  however, 
as  she  took  no  steps  to  publish  the  pamphlet  until  1876.  Wlien 
it  appeared,  it  contained  allusions  to  events  which  happened 
after  1872,  and  it  must  have  been  largely  rewritten  after  the 
date  of  the  copyright. 

In  Stoughton  "  The  Science  of  Man  "  was  the  only  manu- 
script from  which  Mrs.  Glover  taught.  By  the  time  she  arrived 
in  Lynn,  however,  she  had  worked  out  another  treatise,  which 
she  sometimes  entitled  "  Scientific  Treatise  on  Mortality,  As 
Taught  by  Mrs.  M.  B.  Glover,"  and  sometimes  gave  no  title 
at  all.  Mr.  Horatio  Dresser  and  Mr.  George  A.  Quimby,  the 
two  persons  best  acquainted  with  Phineas  P.  Quimby's  writings, 
say  that  this  second  manuscript  is  only  partially  his,  and 
seems  to  be  made  up  of  extracts  from  his  writings,  woven  to- 
gether and  interspersed  with  much  that  must  have  been  Mrs. 
Glover's  own.  In  her  early  teaching  in  Lynn  she  gave  out 
this  new  manuscript,  first  requiring  her  pupils  to  learn  it  by 
heart,  and  following  it  up  with  "  The  Science  of  Man,"  which 
still  formed  the  basis  of  her  lectures.  She  occasionally  rein- 
forced her  instruction  by  giving  to  a  promising  pupil  still  a 
third  manuscript,  also  a  combination  of  Quimby  and  herself, 
which  she  called  "  Soul's  Inquiries  of  Man."  At  first,  however, 
Mrs.  Glover  gave  Quimby  credit  for  the  authorship  of  the  three 
manuscripts,  even  for  the  two  which  seem  to  have  been  partly 
her  own  composition. 

The  next  important  change  in  her  manuscript  occurred  in  the 
spring  of  1872,  when  Richard  Kennedy  left  her.     Mrs.  Glover 


164.        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

was  then  without  a  practising  student — a  serious  disadvantage 
to  her — and  she  was  so  angered  that  she  conceived  for  Kennedy 
a  violent  hatred,  from  which,  without  the  slightest  provocation 
on  his  part,  she  suffered  intensely  for  many  years,  and  from 
which  it  may  be  justly  said  she  still  suffers.  Kennedy  simply 
changed  his  office,  refused  to  discuss  Mrs.  Glover  at  all,  and 
went  on  practising.  His  success  so  annoyed  Mrs.  Glover  that 
she  wished  to  repudiate  him  and  his  methods,  and  to  do  this 
it  was  necessary  to  repudiate  what  she  herself  had  taught  him. 
She  therefore  announced  that  she  had  discovered  that  the  method 
of  treatment  which  she  had  taught  Kennedy  (i.e.,  wetting  and 
rubbing  the  patient's  head)  was  harmful  and  pernicious.  Mr. 
Wright's  articles  in  the  Lynn  Transcript  had  apparently  sug- 
gested mesmerism  to  her,  and  she  now  declared  that  Kennedy 
was  a  mesmerist  and  his  treatment  mesmerism.^  ^'^  In  the  first 
edition  of  Science  and  Health,  page  193,  she  says: 

Sooner  suflFer  a  doctor  infected  with  smallpox  to  be  about  you  than 
come  under  the  treatment  of  one  that  manipulates  his  patients'  heads,  and 
is  a  traitor  to  science. 

And  on  page  371 : 

There  is  but  one  possible  way  of  doing  wrong  with  a  mental  method  of 
healing,  and  this  is  mesmerism,  whereby  the  minds  of  the  sick  may  be 
controlled  with  error  instead  of  Truth.  .  .  .  For  years  we  had  tested 
the  benefits  of  Truth  on  the  body,  and  knew  no  opposite  chance  for  doing 
evil  through  a  mental  method  of  healing  until  we  saw  it  traduced  by  an 
erring  student,  and  made  the  medium  of  error.  Introducing  falsehoods 
into  the  minds  of  the  patients  prevented  their  recovery,  and  the  sins  of  the 
doctor  was  visited  on  the  patients,  many  of  whom  died  because  of 
this.    .    .    . 

Soon  after  her  break  with  Kennedy  she  had  all  her  students 

strike  out  from  their  manuscript,  "  Scientific  Treatise  on  Mortal- 

4  \^'?71l^^  ^^PJ7  of  the  beginning  and  growth  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  belief  in  mesmerism 
is  told  in  full  in  Chapter  XII. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  165 

itj,"  the  passages  regarding  the  manipulation  of  the  patient's 
head.     These  passages  are  within  parentheses  in  the  following: 

That  is,  do  not  be  discouraged  but  hold  calmly  and  persistently  on  to 
science  that  tells  you  you  are  right  and  they  are  in  error,  (and  wetting 
your  hand  in  water,  rise  and  rub  their  head,  this  rubbing  has  no  virtue 
only  as  we  believe  and  others  believe  we  get  nearer  to  them  by  contact, 
and  now  you  would  rub  out  a  belief  and  this  belief  is  located  in  the  brain, 
therefore  as  an  M.D.  lays  a  poultice  where  the  pain  is,  so  you  lay  your 
hands  where  the  belief  is  to  rub  it  forever  out)  do  not  address  your 
thoughts  for  a  moment  to  their  body  as  you  mentally  argue  down  their 
beliefs  (and  rub  their  heads)  but  take  yourself,  the  Soul,  to  destroy  the 
error  of  life,  sensation  and  substance  in  matter  to  your  own  belief,  as 
much  as  in  you  lies,  etc. 

"  Manipulation,"  as  she  called  it,  became  a  thing  of  horror 
to  Mrs.  Glover;  it  was  the  taint  which  distinguished  the  false 
science  from  the  true.  Now,  manipulation  had  been  Quimby's 
method  of  treating  his  patients,  and  as  Mrs.  Glover  was  a 
person  of  singularly  literal  mind,  breaking  away  from  that 
method  gave  her  a  sense  not  only  of  independence  but  of  con- 
quest. She  considered  that  she  had  improved  upon  the  original 
Quimby  method  and  left  it  behind  her.  She  still  taught  her 
students  to  put  their  fingers  upon  the  patient's  head,  but  the 
rubbing  and  the  bowl  of  water  were  now  symbols  of  the  dark 
abuses  of  "  mental  malpractice."  Having  abjured  them,  Mrs. 
Glover  felt  that  this  Science  was  hers  as  it  had  never  been  before. 
She  felt  that  she  had  now  a  system  which  was  practically  her 
own,  and  told  Dr.  Spofford  she  considered  that  Quimby  had 
been  a  detriment  to  her  growth  in  Science.  The  more  one 
studies  the  illogical  and  literal  quality  of  Mrs.  Glover's  mind 
as  evinced  in  her  life  and  writings,  the  better  one  understands 
how  she  could  readily  persuade  herself  that  this  was  true. 


166        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  progress  of  this  assimilation  is  easily  followed: 

First — The  writing  of  a  signed  preface  to  and  the  amending 
of  the  original  Quimby  manuscript. 

Second — The  incorporating  of  this  preface  in  the  text. 

Third — The  composition  of  a  second  manuscript,  partly  her 
own,  from  which  she  was  able  to  teach  successfully. 

Fourth — The  discontinuation  of  "  manipulation  "  in  treat- 
ment. 

Fifth — The  belief,  fostered  by  her  students,  that  her  inter- 
pretation of  the  Quimby  manuscript  was  far  beyond  the  manu- 
script itself  in  scope  and  understanding. 

Sixth — The  writing  of  the  book.  Science  and  Health,  begun 
in  the  later  '60's  and  finished  in  1875,  in  which  Mrs.  Glover 
undoubtedly  added  much  extraneous  matter  to  Quimbyism,  and 
developed  self-confidence  by  presenting  ideas  of  her  own. 

Although  the  Christian  Science  Church  was  not  chartered 
until  1879,  the  first  attempt  at  an  organisation  was  made  in 
1875.  Her  students  desired  Mrs.  Glover  to  conduct  services 
of  public  worship  in  Lynn,  and  to  this  end  formed  an  association, 
electing  officers,  and  calling  themselves  the  "  Christian  Scien- 
tists." In  a  memorandum  book,  kept  by  Daniel  H.  Spofford 
in  the  spring  of  that  year,  appears  the  following  entry : 

May  26 — At  a  meeting  of  students,  8  Broad  street,  there  was  a  com- 
mittee of  three  appointed,  consisting  of  Dorcas  B.  Rawson,  George  W. 
Barry  and  D.  H.  SpoflFord,  to  ascertain  what  a  suitable  hall  could  be  rented 
for,  and  the  amount  which  could  be  raised  weekly  toward  sustaining  Mrs. 
Glover  as  teacher  and  instructor  for  one  year.  Committee  to  report  night 
of  June  1. 

This  committee  entered  heartily  into  its  labours  and  drew 
up  the  following  pledge,  which  was  signed  by  eight  students; 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  167 

Whereas,  in  times  not  long  past,  the  Science  of  Healing  new  to  the 
age,  and  far  in  advance  of  all  other  modes  was  introduced  into  the  city  of 
Lynn  by  its  discoverer,  a  certain  lady,  Mary  Baker  Glover, 

And,  whereas,  many  friends  spread  the  good  tidings  throughout  the 
place,  and  bore  aloft  the  standard  of  life  and  truth  which  had  declared 
freedom  to  many  manacled  with  the  bonds  of  disease  or  error. 

And,  whereas,  by  the  wilful  and  wicked  disobedience  of  an  individual,* 
who  has  no  name  in  Love  Wisdom  or  Truth,  the  light  was  obscured  by  clouds 
of  misinterpretation  and  mists  of  mystery,  so  that  God's  work  was  hidden 
from   the   world   and   derided   in   the   streets. 

Now  therefore,  we,  students  and  advocates  of  this  moral  science  called 
the  Science  of  Life,  .  .  .  have  arranged  with  the  said  Mary  Baker 
Glover,  to  preach  to  us  or  direct  our  meetings  on  the  Sabbath  of  each 
week,  and  hereby  covenant  with  one  another,  and  by  these  presents  do 
publish  and  proclaim,  that  we  have  agreed  and  do  each  and  all  agree  to 
pay  weekly,  for  one  year,  beginning  with  the  sixth  day  of  June,  A.D.,  1875, 
to  a  treasurer  chosen  by  at  least  seven  students  the  amount  set  opposite 
our  names,  provided  nevertheless  the  moneys  paid  by  us  shall  be  expended 
for  no  other  purpose  or  purposes  than  the  maintenance  of  said  Mary  Baker 
Glover  as  teacher  or  instructor,  than  the  renting  of  a  suitable  hall  and 
other  necessary  incidental  expenses,  and  our  signatures  shall  be  a  full 
and  sufficient  guarantee  of  our  faithful  performance  of  this  contract. 

Mr.  Spofford's  memorandum  book  continues  the  story  of  this 
association : 

June  1 — On  receiving  the  report  of  the  committee  it  was  decided  to  rent 
Templars'  Hall,  Market  street,  and  the  first  regular  meeting  to  be  June  6. 
Also  a  business  meeting  appointed  June  8. 

June  6 — There  were  probably  sixty  in  attendance  at  the  meeting  this 
evening. 

June  8 — At  the  meeting  this  evening,  George  H.  Allen  was  chosen  presi- 
dent, George  W.  Barry,  secretary,  and  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  treasurer,  the 
society  to  be  known  as  the  "  Christian  Scientists."  ° 

For  five  successive  Sundays  Mrs.  Glover  discoursed  to  her 
pupils  in  the  Templars'  Hall,  receiving  five  dollars  for  each 
address.     The  remaining  five  dollars  of  the  amount  subscribed 

*  Presumably  Richard  Kennedy. 

"  This,  so  far  as  can  be  learned,  was  the  first  time  that  Mrs.  Glovcr'a 
Students  were  called  "  Christian  Scientists." 


168        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

went  toward  paying  incidental  expenses.  After  the  first  two 
meetings  a  number  of  Spiritualists  were  attracted  to  the  services. 
In  the  discussions  following  Mrs.  Glover's  talks  they  asked 
questions  which  annoyed  her,  and  she  finally  refused  to  continue 
her  lectures  and  abolished  public  services. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  same  year  the  book,  Science  and 
Health,  made  its  first  appearance  in  print.*'  Mrs.  Glover  was 
convinced  that  it  was  through  this  volume  that  she  was  to 
make  her  way,  and  that  the  most  important  task  before  her 
was  to  advertise  it  and  push  its  sale.  She  accordingly  en- 
trusted this  work  to  her  leading  practitioner  and  chief  adviser, 
Daniel  Spofford,  persuading  him  to  hand  over  his  thriving 
practice  to  one  of  her  new  students,  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy. 

Mrs.  Glover  first  met  Mr.  Eddy  through  Mr.  Spofford,  to 
whom  Eddy  had  come  as  a  patient.  Although  destined  to 
become  the  husband  of  Mrs.  Glover  and  his  name  to  be 
indissolubly  associated  with  Christian  Science  and  made  famous 
throughout  two  continents,  this  new  student  was  personally  un- 
pretentious and  had  no  suspicion  of  his  future  greatness.  He 
was  of  humble  origin,  coming  from  the  village  of  South  London- 
derry in  the  Green  Mountains,  where  his  father,  Asa  Eddy,  was, 
according  to  his  neighbours  and  friends,  a  hard-working,  plod- 
ding farmer.  His  mother,  Betsey  Smith  Eddy,  was  a  more 
original  character,  and  the  children  inherited  many  of  her 
peculiarities.  Farm  life  Avas  not  congenial  to  Mrs.  Eddy  or 
her  children.  Their  tastes  and  inclinations  were  not  for  the 
established  and  the  orderly,  and  they  consequently  had  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  the  routine  work  of  cither  farm  or  house. 

•  A    flotnilpfl   account  of   the   publlcalion  of   this  important   book  is  given  in 
tbe  nest  chapter. 


ASA  GILBERT  EDDY 
Mrs.  Eddy's  third  husband.     He  died  in  18S2 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  169 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  a  very  marked  example  of  New  England 
housewifely  thrift,  and  she  was  pretty  generally  criticised  for 
her  "  slack  "  housekeeping  and  her  inattention  to  her  children. 
The  children,  indeed,  grew  up  as  they  would,  satisfying  their 
hunger  from  the  "  mush-pot  "  in  which  they  boiled  the  corn- 
meal  porridge  which  formed  their  main  diet,  and  regulating 
their  habits  and  conduct,  each  to  suit  himself.  They  met  with 
no  interference  from  their  mother,  who  was  much  away  from 
home.  Every  morning  after  the  children  had  been  sent  over 
to  the  district  school,  which  was  only  a  few  steps  from  the 
house,  it  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  invariable  custom  to  hitch  up  her 
horse  and  set  forth  on  a  trip  through  the  country  or  to  the 
neighbouring  towns.  This  di'ive  usually  lasted  all  day,  and  it 
was  the  one  thing  that  was  performed  with  promptness  and 
regularity  in  the  Eddy  menage.  To  protect  herself  from  rough 
weather  on  her  expeditions,  Mrs.  Eddy  devised  an  ingenious 
costume.  From  the  front  of  her  large  poke  bonnet  she  hung 
a  shawl,  in  which  was  inserted  a  9x10  pane  of  window  glass, 
so  placed  that  when  she  donned  the  costume  the  glass  was 
opposite  her  face.  This  handy  contrivance  kept  out  the  wind 
or  rain  or  snow,  without  obscuring  her  vision  ;  and  thus  equipped, 
Mrs.  Eddy  daily  defied  the  vagaries  of  Vermont  weather.  The 
children  of  the  village  called  her  "  the  woman  with  the  looking- 
glass." 

Neighbourly  comment  and  rebuke  were  lost  on  mother  and 
children  alike.  They  themselves  enjoyed  the  unhampered  life 
they  led.  It  was  only  those  who  had  a  sense  of  order  and 
regularity  who  suffered  from  the  Eddy  method,  and  they  were 
all  outside  the  Eddy  family,  unless  indeed,  it  were  Asa  Eddy, 


170        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

the  father,  who  may  sometimes  have  grown  tired  of  returning 
from  his  day's  work  in  the  fields  to  a  deserted  house,  to  make 
a  fire  and  prepare  his  own  food. 

As  the  boys  grew  older  they  were  very  ingenious  about  the 
house.  They  learned  to  wash  and  iron  their  own  clothes  as 
well  as  to  make  them,  and  while  none  of  them  would  work  on 
the  farm  with  their  father  they  all  knew  how  to  run  the  loom, 
which  their  mother  kept  in  the  kitchen,  and  upon  which  she 
sometimes  wove.  They  took  naturally  to  the  trades,  and  when 
they  started  out  for  themselves  one  chose  that  of  a  carpenter, 
another  became  a  cobbler,  a  third  a  stonecutter,  a  fourth  a 
clock-maker,  and  Asa  Gilbert,  the  future  husband  of  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  Science  Church,  was  a  weaver.  As 
a  boy  Gilbert  had  been  much  with  his  mother,  often  accompany- 
ing her  on  her  drives  and  winding  the  "  quills  "  for  her  loom 
on  the  rare  occasions  when  she  felt  like  spinning  or  weaving. 
At  school,  where  he  was  nicknamed  "  Githy,"  ^  he  was  backward 
in  everything  except  penmanship,  in  which  he  excelled  and  in 
which  he  took  great  satisfaction.  He  had  considerable  personal 
pride  of  a  kind  which  showed  itself  in  his  odd  choice  of  clothes, 
his  mincing  gait,  and  the  elaborate  arrangement  of  his  hair, 
which  he  trained  to  curl  under  in  a  roll  at  the  back  and  combed 
up  into  a  high  "  roach  "  in  front.  Like  his  brothers  he  was 
fond  of  hunting  and  spent  much  of  his  time  shooting  at  birds 
or  at  a  target.  Sometimes  he  hired  out  to  a  farmer,  but  only 
for  a  few  days  or  weeks  at  a  time,  for  he  had  no  taste  for 
farming. 

The  family  had  no  church  connections  or  religious  prefer- 

'  This  nickname  was  won  because  Gilbert  had  a  Usp  and  could  not  pronounce 
the  words,  "  gccse  eggs." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  171 

ences,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  had  pinned  her  faith  to  a  famous  clair- 
voyant called  "  Sleeping  Lucy,"  who  lived  up  the  valley  at 
Cavendish.  "  Sleeping  Lucy,"  ®  whose  real  name  was  Mrs. 
Lucy  Cook,  possessed  what  she  called  "  a  gift  of  nature,"  by 
means  of  which  she  passed  into  a  sleep  or  trance  and  was 
able,  when  in  this  sleeping  state,  to  diagnose  cases  of  sickness 
and  to  prescribe  remedies  for  them.  Mrs.  Eddy's  faith  in 
"  Sleeping  Lucy  "  was  profound,  and  whenever  any  of  her 
family  were  ill  she  bundled  them  up  and  took  them  to  Cavendish 
to  see  the  clairvoyant.  When  Spiritualism  was  introduced,  it 
appealed  at  once  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  and  her  son  Gilbert 
became  ardent  believers,  attending  the  Spiritualist  meetings  and 
seances  for  miles  around. 

When  Gilbert  left  home,  about  1860,  he  went  to  Springfield, 
Vt.,  to  run  a  "  spinning  jack  "  in  a  woollen  mill,  and  later 
when  the  woollen  mill  burned,  he  found  employment  in  a  baby- 
carriage  factory  in  the  same  village.  Altogether  he  was  in 
Springfield  until  late  in  the  'sixties,  and  after  spending  some 
time  again  in  Londonderry,  he  drifted  to  East  Boston  and  be- 
came agent  for  a  sewing  machine.  In  spite  of  the  shiftlessness 
of  his  bringing  up,  Gilbert  developed  a  strain  of  thrift  and 
economy.  While  in  Springfield  he  had  worked  regularly  and 
hoarded  his  savings.  He  lived  by  himself  in  meagre  quarters 
and  did  his  own  housework,  including  his  washing,  and  he  made 
his  own  trousers.  His  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Washington  Eddy  of 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  says,  that  when  he  visited  his  brother,  he 
always  helped  her  with  the  housework,  especially  with  the  iron- 
ing.     She  says  that  "  he  could  do  up  a  shirt  as  well  as  any 

' "  Sleeping  Lucy "  later  went  to  Montpelier  and  to  Boston,  where,  under 
another   name,   she  became  well  known  and  prosperous. 


172        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

woman."  By  means  of  his  good  management  Gilbert  was  able 
to  purchase  from  his  parents  the  deed  of  their  farm,  which 
at  his  own  death  went  by  will  to  his  wife,  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy, 
who  sold  it  for  $1,500  to  Stephen  Houghton,  a  neighbour  of 
the  Eddys  in  Londonderry. 

It  was  wliile  Gilbert  was  acting  as  sewing  machine  agent  in 
East  Boston  that  he  heard  of  Daniel  H.  SpofFord  as  a  healer 
and  went  to  him  as  a  patient.  Spofford  talked  with  him  about 
the  method  he  practised  and  when  Eddy  became  interested, 
SpofFord  advised  him  to  study  the  system  and  become  a  practi- 
tioner himself.  Eddy  eagerly  accepted  the  advice  and  Spofford 
introduced  him  to  Mrs.  Glover,  who  at  once  enrolled  him  as 
a  member  of  her  next  class. 

People  who  knew  Eddy  well  in  Lynn  describe  liim  as  a 
quiet,  dull  little  man,  docile  and  yielding  up  to  a  certain  point, 
but  capable  of  a  dogged  sort  of  obstinacy.  He  was  short  of 
stature,  slow  in  his  movements,  and  always  taciturn.  When 
he  first  came  to  Lynn  people  remarked  upon  his  old-fashioned 
dress  and  singular  manner  of  wearing  his  hair.  He  usually 
wore  a  knitted  Cardigan  jacket  and  a  long  surtout  gathered 
very  full  at  the  waist  and  a  light  cinnamon  in  colour. 

From  their  first  acquaintance  he  and  his  teacher  manifested 
a  cordial  regard  for  each  other.  He  alone  of  all  her  students 
was  permitted  to  call  her  by  her  first  name,  Mary,  and  she 
addressed  him  as  Gilbert,  often  speaking  of  him  to  other  pupils, 
and  extolling  his  willingness  and  obedience.  After  Mr.  Spof- 
ford's  patients  had  been  transferred  to  Eddy,  some  of  Mrs. 
Glover's  students  began  to  feel  that  her  interest  in  the  new 
practitioner  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  his  usefulness  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  173 

Science.  Mrs.  Glover  became  aware  of  this  jealousy  and  was 
greatly  distressed  by  it.  She  felt  that  her  students  were  lean- 
ing on  her  too  heavily,  and  that  by  demanding  her  attention 
and  even  by  thinking  about  her  so  constantly,  they  drained  her 
powers  and  unfitted  her  for  her  work.  She  spoke  much  in  these 
days  of  a  temperamental  quality  which  compelled  her  to  take 
on  the  ills  and  perplexities  of  her  friends  and  to  suffer  from 
them  as  if  they  were  her  own.  She  continually  besought  her 
students  not  to  "  call  upon  her  "  in  thought  when  they  were 
sick  or  in  trouble.  For  some  months  before  her  marriage  to 
Gilbert  Eddy  she  seems  to  have  felt  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  her  students'  minds,  and  that  she  must  find  some  way  to  put 
a  barrier  between  their  thoughts  and  her  own.  An  almost  in- 
coherent letter,  written  to  Daniel  Spofford  two  days  before  her 
marriage,  indicates  great  mental  distress,  and  she  evidently 
felt  that  her  favouritism  toward  Eddy  had  been  the  subject 
of  criticism. 

"  Now,  Dr.  Spofford,"  she  writes,  "  won't  you  exercise  reason 
and  let  me  live  or  will  you  kill  me?  Your  mind  is  just  what  has 
brought  on  my  relapse  and  I  shall  never  recover  if  you  do  not 
govern  yourself  and  turn  youe  thoughts  wholly  away  from 
me.  Do  for  God's  sake  and  the  work  I  have  before  me  let  me  get 
out  of  this  suffering  I  never  was  worse  than  last  night  and 
you  say  you  wish  to  do  me  good  and  I  do  not  doubt  it.  Then 
won't  you  quit  thinking  of  mc.  I  shall  write  no  more  to  a  male 
student  and  never  more  trust  one  to  live  with.  It  is  a  hidden 
foe  that  is  at  work  read  Science  and  Health  page  193,  1st 
paragraph. 

"  No  STUDENT  nor  mortal  has  tried  to  have  you  leave  me 


174<        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

that  I  know  of.  Dr.  Eddy  has  tried  to  have  you  stay  you 
are  in  a  mistake,  it  is  God  and  not  man  that  has  separated  us 
and  for  the  reason  I  begin  to  learn.  Do  not  think  of  returning 
to  me  again  I  shall  never  again  trust  a  man  They  know  not 
what  manner  of  temptations  assail  God  produces  the  separation 
and  I  submit  to  it  so  must  you.  There  is  no  cloud  between 
us  but  the  way  you  set  me  up  for  a  Dagon  is  wrong  and 
now  I  implore  you  to  return  forever  from  this  error  of  per- 
sonality  and  go  alone  to  God  as  I  have  taught  you. 

"  It  is  mesmerism  that  I  feel  and  is  killing  me  it  is  mortal 
mind  that  only  can  make  me  suffer.  Now  stop  thinking  of  me 
or  you  will  cut  me  off  soon  from  the  face  of  the  earth." 

Gilbert  Eddy  called  on  his  teacher  that  same  evening,  and 
must  have  reassured  the  distracted  woman  as  to  the  trust- 
worthiness of  his  sex,  for  on  the  next  day  he  was  the  proud 
bearer  to  Spofford  of  the  following  note,  even  the  date  line 
of  which  breathes  peace : 

Sabbath  Eve,  Dec.  31,  '76. 
Dear   Student: 

For  reasons  best  known  to  myself  I  have  changed  my  views  in  respect 
to  marrying  and  ask  you  to  hand  this  note  to  the  Unitarian  clergyman 
and  please  wait   for  his  answer. 

Your  teacher, 

M.  B.  G. 
Hand  or  deliver  the  reply  to  Dr.  Eddy. 

When  Mr.  Spofford  read  the  note  he  remarked: 
"  You've  been  very  quiet  about  all  this,  Gilbert." 
"Indeed,   Dr.    Spofford,"   protested   the   happy   groom,   "I 
didn't  know  a  thing  about  it  myself  until  last  night." 

He  then   produced   the   marriage   license   from   his   pocket, 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  175 

and  Mr.  Spofford  noticed  that  the  ages  of  both  the  bride  and 
groom  were  put  down  as  forty  years.  Knowing  that  Mrs. 
Glover  was  in  her  fifty-sixth  year,  he  remarked  upon  the  in- 
accuracy, but  Mr.  Eddy  explained  that  the  statement  of  age 
was  a  mere  formality  and  that  a  few  years  more  or  less  was 
of  no  consequence. 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1877,  the  Rev.  Samuel  B.  Stewart 
performed  the  marriage  ceremony  at  Mrs.  Glover's  home  on 
Broad  Street.  The  wedding  was  unattended  by  festivities,  but 
several  weeks  later  Mrs.  Eddy's  friends  and  students  assembled 
one  evening  to  offer  the  usual  bridal  gifts  and  congratulations. 
An  interesting  picture  of  this  friendly  gathering  is  found  in 
an  account  published  in  the  Lynn  Recorder,  February  10,  1877. 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENTISTS'  FESTIVAL 
Mr.  Editou — A  very  pleasant  occasion  of  congratulations  and  bridal 
gifts  passed  off  at  the  residence  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Eddy,  at  No.  8  Broad  St.,  on  the  evening  of  the  31st  ult.  The 
arrival  of  a  large  number  of  unexpected  guests  at  length  brought  about 
the  discovery  that  it  was  a  sort  of  semi-surprise  party,  and  thus  it  proved, 
and  a  very  agreeable  surjirise  at  that.  It  afterwards  appeared  that  the 
visitors  had  silently  assembled  in  the  lower  parlour,  and  laden  the  table 
with  bridal  gifts,  when  the  door  was  suddenly  thrown  open  and  some  of  the 
family  invited  in  to  find  the  room  well  packed  with  friendly  faces;  all  of 
which  was  the  quiet  work  of  that  mistress  of  all  good  management,  Mrs. 
Bixby.  One  of  the  most  elaborate  gifts  in  silver  was  a  cake  basket.  A 
bouquet  of  crystallised  geranium  leaves  of  rare  varieties  encased  in  glass 
was  charming,  but  the  presents  were  too  fine  to  permit  a  selection.  Mr. 
S.  P.  Bancroft  gave  the  opening  address — a  very  kind  and  graceful  speech, 
which  was  replied  to  by  Mrs.  Glover-Eddy  with  evident  satisfaction,  when 
alluding  to  the  unbroken  friendship  for  their  teacher,  the  fidelity  to  Truth 
and  the  noble  purposes  cherished  by  a  number  of  her  students  and  the 
amount  of  good  compared  with  others  of  which  they  were  capable.  The 
happy  evening  was  closed  with  reading  the  Bible,  remarks  on  the  Scriptures, 
etc.     Wedding  cake  and  lemonade  were  served,  and  those  from  out  of  town 

took  the  cars   for  home. 

Spectator. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  FIRST  APPEARANCE  OF  "  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH  " CHRISTIAN 

SCIENCE    AS    A    SYSTEM    OF    METAPHYSICS ^AS    A    RELIGION 

AS  A   CURATIVE   AGENT 

The  book  upon  which  Mrs.  Glover  had  been  at  work  for  so 
long,  was  first  published  in  1875.  For  eight  years  she  had  been 
writing  and  rewriting,  with  unabated  patience,  and  wherever  she 
went  she  had  enlisted  the  interest  of  her  friends  and  had  set 
them  to  copying  her  manuscripts  and  getting  them  ready  for 
a  possible  printer.  While  she  was  staying  with  the  Went- 
worths  in  Stoughton  she  carried  her  copy  to  Boston  to  look 
for  a  publisher,  and  when  the  printer  to  whom  she  showed  it 
asked  to  be  paid  in  advance,  Mrs.  Glover  tried  to  persuade 
Mrs.  Wentworth  to  lend  her  the  money.  Had  Mrs.  Glover  then 
been  successful  in  her  search  for  a  publisher.  Christian  Science 
in  its  present  form  would  never  have  existed;  for  at  that 
time  she  had  not  dreamed  of  calling  the  system  anything  but 
Quimby's  "  science." 

By  1875,  however,  Mrs.  Glover  had  persuaded  herself  that 
she  owed  very  little  to  the  old  Maine  philosopher,^  and  when 
her  book  appeared  she  said  no  more  of  Quimby  or  of  her 
promise  to  teach  his  science  "  to  at  least  two  persons  before 
I  die." 

Neither  Mrs.  Glover  nor  the  printer  took  any  financial  risk 

»The  story  of  Mrs.  Glover's  absorpUon  of  Quimby  is  told  in  Chapter  X. 

176 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  177 

in  the  publication  of  the  book,  when  it  was  at  last  brought  out ; 
but  two  of  Mrs.  Glover's  students,  Miss  Elizabeth  Newhall  and 
George  Barry,  were  prevailed  upon  to  advance  $1,500.  Owing, 
however,  to  the  many  changes  in  the  proofs  which  Mrs.  Glover 
made  after  the  plates  were  cast,  the  edition  cost  $2,200,  which 
Miss  Newhall  and  Mr.  Barry  paid.  Mrs.  Glover,  in  spite  of 
her  reluctance  to  risk  money  on  it,  believed  intensely  in  her 
book,  and  from  the  first  she  declared  that  it  would  sell.  Even 
when  the  first  edition  of  1,000  copies  fell  flat  on  the  market 
and  Daniel  SpofFord  was  obliged  to  peddle  them  about  person- 
ally, Mrs.  Glover  did  not  lose  confidence  in  the  future  of  her 
book,  but  immediately  set  about  revising  the  volume  for  a 
second  edition. 

Mrs.  Glover  and  Mr.  Spofford  advertised  the  book  by  means 
of  handbills  and  through  the  newspapers,  printing  testimonials 
of  the  wonderful  cures  made  by  the  application  of  the  science, 
and  urging  all  to  buy  the  book  which  would  tell  them  all  about 
it.  Copies  were  sent  to  the  leading  New  England  newspapers 
for  review,  accompanied  by  a  request  to  the  editors  to  print 
nothing  about  the  book  if  a  favourable  notice  could  not  be 
given.  This  request  was  respected  by  some  of  the  papers,  but 
others  criticised  the  book  severely  or  referred  to  it  flippantly. 
Copies  were  also  sent  to  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  to 
Thomas  Carlyle,  and  to  several  noted  theologians  and  literary 
men.  But  the  book  made  no  stir,  and  outside  of  the  little 
band  of  devoted  Christian  Scientists,  its  advent  was  unobserved. 
Whatever  imperishable  doctrine  the  book  may  have  contained 
it  was  not  suggested  by  the  outward  form  of  the  volume,  which 
was  an  ill-made,  cheap-looking  affair.     It  contained  456  pages 


178        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

and  sold  for  $2.50  at  first,  but  later,  when  the  sales  fell  off, 
it  went  willingly  for  $1. 

Mrs.  Glover  called  her  book  Science  and  Health,^  an  adapta- 
tion of  Quimby's  name  for  his  healing  system,  "  The  Science 
of  Health."  It  contained  eight  chapters  entitled  in  their  order : 
"  Natural  Science,"  "  Imposition  and  Demonstration,"  "  Spirit 
and  Matter,"  "  Creation,"  "  Prayer  and  Atonement,"  "  Mar- 
riage," "  Physiology,"  and  "  Healing  the  Sick."  In  these  chap- 
ters Mrs.  Glover  attempted  to  set  forth  the  theory  of  her 
"  Science "  of  healing  and  the  theological  and  metaphysical 
systems  upon  which  it  was  based.  It  was  a  serious  undertaking, 
but  Mrs.  Glover,  with  no  preparation  but  her  study  of  the 
Quimby  manuscripts,  and  no  resources  but  an  illimitable  con- 
fidence in  the  success  of  her  undertaking,  felt  equal  to  the 
task;  and  judged  by  Mrs.  Glover's  standard,  her  venture  was 
a  success. 

Even  after  her  eight  years  struggle  with  her  copy,  the  book, 

]  as  printed  in  1875,  is  hardly  more  than  a  tangle  of  words  and 
theories,  faulty  in  grammar  and  construction,  and  singularly 

i  vague  and  contradictory  in  its  statements.  Although  the  book 
is  divided  into  chapters,  each  having  a  title  of  its  own,  there 
is  no  corresponding  classification  of  the  subject,  and  it  is  only 
by  piecing  together  the  declarations  found  in  the  various  chap- 
ters that  one  may  make  out  something  of  the  theories  which 
Mrs.  Glover  had  been  trying  for  so  long  to  express. 

The  basic  ideas  of  the  book  and  much  of  the  terminology 
were,  of  course,  borrowed  from  the  Quimby  papers  which  Mrs. 
Glover  had  carried  reverently  about  with  her  since  1864,  and 
yet'w'rittc''''  ^°  ^''^  Scriptures,  which   now  forms  a  part  of  the  title,  was  not 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  179 

from  which  she  had  taught  his  doctrines.  But  in  the  elabora- 
tion and  amplification  of  the  Quimby  theory,  Mrs.  Glover' 
introduced  some  totally  new  propositions  and  added  many  an 
ingenious  ornament. 

On  its  metaphysical  side  Mrs.  Glover's  science  went  a  step 
beyond  the  conclusions  of  the  idealistic  philosophers — that  we 
can  have  no  absolute  knowledge  of  matter,  but  only  a  sense 
impression  of  its  existence ;  she  asserted  that  there  is  no  matter 
and  that  we  have  no  senses.  The  five  senses  being  non-existent, 
Mrs.  Glover  pointed  out  that  "  all  evidence  obtained  therefrom  " 
is  non-existent  also.  "  All  material  life  is  a  self-evident  false- 
hood." But  while  denying  the  existence  of  matter,  Mrs.  Glover 
gave  it  a  sort  of  compulsory  recognition  by  calling  it  "  mor- 
tality." And  as  such  it  assumes  formidable  proportions.  It 
is  error,  evil,  a  belief,  an  illusion,  discord,  a  false  claim,  dark- 
ness, devil,  sin,  sickness,  and  death ;  and  all  these  are  non- 
existent. Her  denials  include  all  the  physical  world  and  man- 
kind, and  all  that  mankind  has  accomplished  by  means  of  his 
reason  and  intelligence.  "  Doctrines,  opinions,  and  beliefs,  the 
so-called  laws  of  nature,  remedies  for  soul  and  body,  materia 
medica,  etc.,  are  error,"  Mrs.  Glover  declared ;  but  she  tempered 
the  blow  by  adding :  "  This  may  seem  severe,  but  is  said  with 
honest  convictions  of  its  Truth,  with  reverence  for  God  and 
love  for  man." 

In  Mrs.  Glover's  system  all  that  exists  is  an  immortal 
Principle  which  is  defined  as  Spirit,  God,  Intelligence,  Mind, 
Soul,  Truth,  Life,  etc.,  and  is  the  basis  of  all  things  real. 
This  universal  Principle  is  altogether  good.  In  it  there  is  no 
evil,   darkness,  pain,   sickness,  or   other  forms   of  what   Mrs. 


180        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Glover  called  "  error."  Man  is  a  Spiritual  being  only,  and 
the  world  he  inhabits  is  a  Spiritual  world.  The  idea  that 
he  is  a  physical  body  as  well  as  an  immortal  soul,  is  an  illusion 
introduced  into  the  world  by  Adam  and  strengthened  by  all 
the  succeeding  generations.  In  this  philosophy  it  is  impossible 
for  man  to  be  both  spiritual  and  material.  "  We  are  Spirit, 
Soul,  and  not  body,  and  all  is  good  that  is  Spirit."  "  The 
/  parent  of  all  discord  is  this  strange  hypothesis,  that  Soul  is 
in  body,  and  Life  in  matter."  But  by  one  of  the  contradic- 
tions which  abound  on  every  page,  Mrs.  Glover,  in  accounting 
for  what  seems  to  be  the  existence  of  the  body,  said  that  even 
Avhen  man  shall  have  attained  the  realisation  that  he  is  Spirit 
only,  his  body  will  still  be  here  but  that  it  will  have  no  sensa- 
tion :  "  How  are  Ave  to  escape  from  flesh,  or  mortality,  except 
through  the  change  called  death .?  By  understanding  we  never 
were  flesh,  that  we  are  Spirit  and  not  matter.  When  the  belief 
that  we  inhabit  a  body  is  destroyed  we  shall  live,  but  our 
body  Avill  have  no  sensation." 

To  live  by  this  "  science  "  man  must  clear  his  mind  of  all 
his  previous  beliefs,  and  must  understand  that  all  he  has  be- 
lieved himself  to  be,  is  a  falsehood,  and  that  his  conduct  and 
the  conduct  of  the  whole  human  race  from  the  beginning  have 
been  erroneous.  He  must  ignore  his  physical  body  and  the 
material  things  about  him,  and  he  must  no  longer  depend  upon 
the  laws  of  nature  or  of  man,  but  be  governed  by  spii'itual 
law  only.  "  There  is  no  material  law  that  creates  or  governs 
man,  or  that  man  should  obey;  obedience  to  spiritual  law  is 
all  that  God  requires,  and  this  law  abrogates  matter,"  wrote 
Mrs.  Glover. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  181 

What  seems  to  be  the  physical  world,  Mrs.  Glover  said,  is  a 
vision  created  by  "  mortal  mind,"  that  error  or  belief  in  matter 
which  is  forever  at  war  with  Immortal  Mind,  and  which  Mrs. 
Glover's  philosophy  denied  yet  constantly  recognised.  "  Ma- 
terial man,"  she  wrote,  "  and  a  world  of  matter,  reverse  the 
science  of  being  and  are  utterly  false;  nothing  is  right  about 
them ;  their  starting  point  is  error,  illusion." 

The  physical  forces  of  nature  are  likewise  illusory.  They 
exist,  according  to  Mrs.  Glover,  not  in  fact,  but  because  mortal 
mind  at  some  time  imagined  matter  and  imagined  it  to  contain 
certain  properties.  "  Vertebrates,  articulates,  mollusks,  and 
radiates  are  simply  what  mind  makes  them.  They  are  technical- 
ised  mortahty  that  will  disappear  when  the  radiates  of  Spirit 
illumine  sense  and  destroy  forever  the  belief  of  Life  and  In- 
telligence in  matter."  "  Repulsion,  attraction,  cohesion,  and 
power  supposed  to  belong  to  matter,  are  constituents  of  mind." 
"  The  so-called  destructive  forces  of  matter,  and  the  ferocity 
of  man  and  beast  are  animal  beliefs." 

All  this  is  a  part  of  what  Mrs.  Glover  called  the  "  dream  of 
life  in  matter."  In  time,  when  the  world  shall  have  accepted 
Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Glover  believed,  all  this  will  be  changed : 
"  All  this  must  give  place  to  the  spiritualised  understanding. 
.  .  .  Material  substance,  geological  calculations,  etc.,  will  be 
swallowed  up  in  the  infinite  Spirit  that  comprehends  and  evolves 
all  idea,  structure,  form,  colouring,  etc.,  that  we  now  suppose 
are  produced  by  matter." 

In   Christian  Science,  as  Mrs.   Glover  stated  it,   all  human 
knowledge  which,  she  held,  has  done  so  much  hanii  in  the  world,  | 
will  be  wiped  out,  and  as  man  proceeds  in  the  Christian  Science  II 


182       LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

faith,  he  will  gain  a  complete  understanding  of  the  true  science 
of  life.  This  understanding  will  come  through  spiritual  insight 
w'hich  "  opens  to  view  the  capabilities  of  being,  untrammelled 
by  personal  sense,  explains  the  so-called  miracles,  and  brings 
out  the  infinite  possibilities  of  Soul,  controlling  matter,  discern- 
ing mind,  and  restoring  man's  inalienable  birthright  of  do- 
minion." 

When  man  shall  have  reached  this  summit  of  understanding 
he  will  be  infallible,  unable  to  make  mistakes,  for  "  Mistakes 
are  impossible  to  understanding,  and  understanding  is  all  the 
mind  there  is." 

In  giving  a  religious  foundation  to  her  science,  Mrs.  Glover 
allowed  herself  a  free  hand,  for  here  she  was  not  restrained 
by  the  Hmits  of  Quimbyism.  Quimby  had  not  aimed  to  give 
his  system  a  religious  tone,  but  he  dealt  with  the  same  problems 
that  rehgion  has  tried  to  solve,  and  he  believed  that  the  severe 
doctrines  of  the  churches  overlooked  the  real  solution  of  man's 
destiny,  and  did  incalculable  damage  in  the  world  by  spreading 
fear  and  the  belief  that  man  was  naturally  born  to  sin.  His 
own  theory,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  that  man  had  had  these 
beliefs  of  sin  and  fear  and  disease  so  borne  in  upon  him  and 
impressed  upon  him  that  he  was  spiritually  weakened  and 
^made  impotent  by  an  overruling  conviction  of  his  own  unworthi- 
ncss.  Quimby's  gospel  was  the  gospel  of  healthy-mindedness. 
He  assumed  that  the  vivifying  principle  which  pervaded  the 
universe  was  absolutely  good  and  that  goodness  was  man's 
natural  inheritance.  Quimby  also  taught  that  the  mission  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  to  restore  to  man  his  birthright  of  goodness 
and  happiness  and  health;  to  point  the  way,  as  he  put  it,  to 


HISTORY  OP  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  183 

Harmony ;  and  Harmony,  in  Quimby's  philosophy,  was  Heaven. 
He  also  presented  the  theory  of  the  dual  nature  of  Christ. 
Jesus,  he  said,  was  the  human  man ;  Christ,  the  man  of  God.^ 

In  making  out  her  theological  system,  Mrs.  Glover  took  in'" 
these  modest  ideas  of  Quimby,  borrowed  something  from  the 
Shaker  sect  (see  Appendix  C)  and  the  "  revelations  "  of  Andrew 
Jackson  Davis  (see  Appendix  B),  and  introduced  new  and 
quite  original  ideas  of  her  own.  She  made  argument  futile 
at  the  outset  by  claiming  for  her  religion  the  advantage  of 
direct  inspiration  and  revelation.  "  The  Bible,"  she  wrote, 
"  has  been  our  only  text-book.  .  .  .  The  Scriptures  have  both 
a  literal  and  spiritual  import,  but  the  latter  was  the  especial 
interpretation  we  received,  and  that  taught  us  the  science  of 
Life  outside  of  personal  sense."  "  We  can  not  doubt  the 
inspiration  that  opened  to  us  the  spiritual  sense  of  the 
Bible."  * 

Mrs.  Glover  described  the  process  by  which  she  arrived  at 
the  true  meaning  of  the  Bible :  "  The  only  method  of  reaching 
the  Science  of  the  Scripture,  hence,  the  Truth  of  the  Bible,  is 
to  rise  to  its  spiritual  interpretation,  then  compare  its  sayings, 
and  gain  its  general  tenor,  which  enables  us  to  reach  the  ascend- 
ing scale  of  being  through  demonstration ;  as  did  prophet  and 
apostle."  By  pursuing  this  method  she  came,  inevitably,  to 
some  curious  conclusions  concerning  the  beginning  of  the  world 
and  the  origin  of  man.  Parts  of  the  Bible  she  accepted  liter- 
all}^,  other  parts  were  declared  to  be  allegorical,  and  some 
of  its   statements   she  rejected  altogether   as  mistakes   of  the 

3  An  exposition  of  Quimby's  doctrine  is  contained  in  Chapter  III  of  this 
volume.  ,     .        . 

■"  In  later  editions  of  Science  and  Health  the  idea  of  revelation  is  greatly 
enlarged  upon  and  emphasised. 


184.        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

early  translators  and  copyists.  "  From  the  original  quota- 
tions," wrote  Mrs.  Glover,  "  it  appears  the  Scriptures  were  not 
understood  by  those  who  re-read  and  re-wrote  them.  The  true 
rendering  was  their  spiritual  sense."  And  again :  "  The  thirty 
thousand  different  readings  given  the  Old,  and  the  three  thou- 
sand the  New  Testament,  account  for  the  discrepancies  that 
sometimes  appear  in  the  Scriptures." 

In  the  chapter  called  "  Creation,"  Mrs.  Glover  stated  that 
the  Trinity  as  commonly  accepted  is  an  error.  "  There  is 
but  one  God.  .  .  .  That  three  persons  are  united  in  one  body 
suggests  a  heathen  deity  more  than  Jehovah.  .  .  .  Life,  Truth, 
and  Love  are  the  triune  Principle  of  man  and  the  universe; 
they  are  the  great  Jehovah,  and  these  three  are  one,  and  our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven."  In  later  editions  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  said  to  be  the  Holy  Comforter. 

The  creation  of  the  universe  and  man  had  its  origin  in  this 
triune  Principle.  The  creation  was  the  Idea  of  Principle ;  and 
man  and  the  universe  began  to  exist,  not  at  the  moment  they 
received  visible  form,  but  before  that — at  the  very  moment, 
in  fact,  that  the  Idea  of  them  occurred  to  Principle.  "  Intelli- 
gence "  [that  is,  Principle],  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "made  all  that 
was  made,  and  every  plant  before  it  was  in  the  ground;  every 
mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  were  ideas  of  the  eternal  thought." 
Their  form  was  only  a  "  shadowing  forth  "  of  what  Principle 
or  Intelligence  had  already  mentally  created;  for  all  that  was 
made  and  all  that  grew  was  not  developed  by  natural  law, 
but  was  literally  ordered  into  being  by  the  First  Principle  or 
Creative  Wisdom :  "  The  seed  yields  not  an  herb  because  of  a 
propagating  principle  in  itself;  for  there  is  none,  inasmuch 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  185 

as  Intelligence  made  all  that  was  made ;  the  idea  was  only  to 
shadow  forth  what  Intelligence  had  made." 

"  Water,"  in  Mrs.  Glover's  interpretation,  was  made  to  corre- 
spond to  Love,  out  of  which  Wisdom  produced  the  "  dry  land  " 
which  is,  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  the  condensed  idea  of  the  universe." 
The  statement  in  the  Bible  that  God  divided  the  light  from  the 
darkness  is  said  to  mean  that  "  Truth  and  error  were  distinct 
in  the  beginning  and  never  mingled."  This  statement  was  made 
without  explanation  of  how  "  error  "  came  to  be  co-existing 
with  Truth  in  the  beginning,  or  by  whom  it  was  created.  Mrs. 
Glover  apparently  had  forgotten  for  the  moment  that  "  error  " 
is  a  belief  only  and  that  this  illusion  originated  with  Adam. 

The  firmament  which  God  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  waters 
to  divide  them,  was,  according  to  Science  and  Health,  the 
understanding  that  divided  the  waters  into  those  "  above  "  and 
those  "  below,"  into  the  spiritual  and  material,  that  we  learn 
are  separated  forever.  .  .  .  Understanding  interpreted  God 
and  was  the  dividing  line  between  Truth  and  error ;  to  separate 
the  waters  which  were  under  the  firmament  from  those  above 
it ;  to  hold  Life  and  Intelligence  that  made  all  things  distinct 
from  what  it  made,  and  superior  to  them,  controlling  and  pre- 
serving them,  not  through  laws  of  matter,  but  the  law  of 
spirit." 

Mrs.  Glover  did  not  mention  even  here  why  the  "  spiritual  " 
should  be  separated  from  the  "  material  "  by  the  firmament 
of  understanding,  if,  as  she  taught,  there  is  and  never  has 
been  any  material  life.  But,  "  Unfathomable  Mind,"  as  Mrs. 
Glover  said,  "  had  expressed  itself." 

"  It  was  in  obedience  to  Intelligence  and  not  matter,"  that 


186        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  trees  yielded  fruit.  Nature 
was  like  the  setting  of  a  stage,  where  scenes  could  be  shifted 
at  will.  Intelligence  brought  forth  landscapes  *  ^"  "  even  as  a 
picture  is  produced  by  the  artist."  "  The  grass  and  the  trees 
grew,"  not  from  the  ground,  but  "  from  out  the  infinite  thought 
that  expressed  them."  In  the  creation  of  the  solar  system 
Mrs.  Glover  saw  a  complete  endorsement  of  her  theory  that 
vegetation  lived  by  Intelligence  only :  "  The  Scripture  gives 
no  record  of  solar  light  until  after  time  had  been  divided  into 
day  and  night,  and  vegetation  was  formed,  showing  you  light 
was  the  symbol  of  the  Life-giving  Creator,  and  not  a  source 
of  life  to  the  vegetable  kingdom.  .  .  .  Matter  never  repre- 
sented God ;  geology  cannot  explain  the  earth,  nor  one  of  Its 
formations." 

The  animal  creation,  according  to  Mrs.  Glover's  Idea,  was 
originally  mild  and  harmless,  "  Beast  and  reptile,"  she  said, 
"  were  neither  carnivorous  nor  poisonous."  Wisdom  held  do- 
minion over  reptiles  In  those  first  days,  and  the  savage  traits 
of  wild  animals  to-day  are  the  result  of  erroneous  human  think- 
ing. Mortal  mind  has  impressed  these  qualities  Into  the  animal 
kingdom.  It  was  because  they  understood  this  that  Moses 
"  made  a  staff  as  a  serpent,"  and  Daniel  feared  not  the  hungry 
lions.  "When  immortality  Is  better  understood,"  Mrs.  Glover 
said,  "  there  will  follow  an  exercise  of  capacity  unknown  to 
mortals." 

In  the  story  of  the  creation  of  man  as  recorded  in  Genesis, 


«i.JMrR.  Olovpi-  also  taught  that  the  natural  law  which  produces  flowers  and 
fruit  can  be  clianffed  at  will,  even  now,  if  one  has  a  grasp  of  her  science. 
In  a  personal  letter  written  in  181)6  she  stated  that  she  had  caused  an  apple 
tree  to  blossom  in  .January,  and  had  frequently  performed  "some  such  trifles 
In    the   floral    line,"    while   living  in    I^ynn. 


HISTORY  OP  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  187 

Mrs.  Glover  found  much  that  would  not  fit  into  her  plan  of  the 
universe,  but  she  explained  this :  "  In  Genesis,  the  spiritual 
record  of  the  universe  and  man  is  lost  sight  of,  it  was  so  material- 
ised by  uninspired  writers."  And,  "  the  scripture  not  being 
understood  by  its  translators  was  misinterpreted."  "  The 
translators  of  that  record  v/rote  it  in  the  error  of  being  .  .  . 
hence  their  misinterpretations.  .  .  .  They  spake  from  error, 
of  error  .  .  .  which  accounts  for  the  contradictions  in  that 
glorious  old  record  of  Creation."  "  A  wrong  version  of  the 
Scriptures  has  hidden  their  Truth."  According  to  Mrs. 
Glover's  version,  man  was  formed  as  follows : 

When,  as  recorded  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  God  said: 
"  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness,  and  let  tJiem 
have  dominion  .  .  .  over  all  the  earth,"  He  meant  by  the  word 
"  us  "  to  indicate  His  triune  Principle  of  Life,  Truth,  and  Love. 
Tlie  word,  "  them,"  referred  to  man  in  the  plural.  It  "  signi- 
fies plurality,  for  man  was  the  generic  name  of  mankind." 
Therefore,  we  have  the  conclusion  that  God,  in  his  triune 
capacity  of  Life,  Truth,  and  Love,  made,  not  one  man,  but 
all  mankind :  "  In  contradistinction  to  the  belief  that  God  made 
one  man,  and  man  made  the  rest  of  his  kind,  science  reveals 
the  fact  that  he  made  all." 

"  So  God  created  man  in  His  own  image,  male  and  female 
created  He  them,"  means,  in  the  Science  and  Health  version, 
that  mankind  thus  created,  merely  "  reflected  the  Principle  of 
male  and  female,  and  was  the  likeness  of  '  Us,'  the  compound 
Principle  that  made  man."  It  is  to  be  understood  that  God, 
himself,  not  being  a  person,  can  have  no  "  gender,"  "  inasmuch 
as    He   is    Principle   embracing   the   masculine,    feminine,    and 


188        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

neuter."  Indeed,  if  one  of  these  genders  predominates  over 
another  in  the  triune  Principle,  it  is  the  feminine,  for  "  We  have 
not,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  as  much  authority  in  science,  for 
calling  God  masculine  as  feminine,  the  latter  being  the  last, 
therefore  the  highest  idea  given  of  him."  Also :  "  Woman 
was  a  higher  idea  of  God  than  man,  insomuch  as  she  was  the 
final  one  in  the  scale  of  being;  but  because  our  beliefs  reverse 
every  position  of  Truth,  we  name  supreme  being  masculine 
instead  of  feminine."  ^ 

This  creation  of  man,  as  recorded  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  and  explained  by  Science  and  Health,  was,  according 
to  Mrs.  Glover,  the  only  real  creation  of  man.  This  man  is 
not  given  a  name  in  the  Bible.  He  was  mankind,  the  inmiortal 
Idea  of  the  First  Principle,  and  he  inhabited  the  inanimate 
universe,  and  w^as  given  dominion  over  it.  "  All  blessings  and 
power,"  said  Science  and  Health,  "  came  with  the  creations  of 
Spirit  and  as  such  they  were  to  multiply  and  replenish  the 
earth  on  this  basis  of  being,  and  subdue  it,  making  matter  sub- 
servient to  spirit,  and  all  would  be  harmonious  and  immortal." 
That  is,  that  as  intended  in  the  beginning,  this  spiritual  universe 
was  to  continue  its  existence,  and  Idea  or  man  was  to  "  multiply 
and  replenish  the  earth  "  solely  by  the  will  of  the  Spirit.  The 
products  of  the  earth  were  to  come  forth  when  and  how  original 
man  dictated.  "  In  this  science  of  being  the  herb  bore  seed 
and  the  tree  fruit,  not  because  of  root,  seed  or  blossom,  but 
because  their  Principle  sustained  these  ideas." 

There  were  no   laws   of  nature,   or   of  man,   for   none  was 


°  In  moro  rcoent  years  Chrisdnn  Sciontlsts  have  declared  their  belief  that 
Afrs.  Eddy  is  the  "  feminine  principh"  of  Deity,"  and  much  has  been  written 
by  her  followers  in  defence  of  this  position. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  189 

needed.  All  was  Mind  or  Infinite  Spirit.  Man,  the  male  and 
female  Idea  of  God,  was  to  bring  forth  his  kind,  through  the 
law  of  Spirit  only.''  "  That  matter  propagates  itself  through 
seed  and  germination  is  error,  a  belief  only." 

When  God  had  thus  made  mankind,  according  to  Mrs. 
Glover's  version,  he  rested,  and  he  had  nothing  to  do  with 
making  anything  that  came  later.  Of  the  Bible  statement: 
"  Thus  the  heavens  and  earth  were  finished  and  all  the  hosts 
of  them,"  Mrs.  Glover  said:  "  Here  the  scripture  repeats  again 
the  science  of  creation,  namely,  that  all  was  complete  and 
finished,  therefore  that  nothing  has  since  been  made."  Having 
finished  creation,  God  rested  on  the  seventh  day,  and  this  again 
supplied  to  Mrs.  Glover  proof  that  whatever  was  created  there- 
after was  not  of  God,  but  a  myth  only.  Creation  was  finished, 
and  the  Great  Principle  was  at  rest. 

But  somehow,  and  because  of  the  carelessness,  no  doubt,  of 
the  early  translators,  a  second  creation  was  started,  after  the 
seventh  day.  But  the  story  of  this  supplementary  creation, 
related  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis,  is  purely  mythical  and 
imaginary,  Mrs.  Glover  declared.  It  is  due  entirely  to  mis- 
interpretation, and  is  wholly  untrustworthy.  How  this  belief 
in  a  further  creation  started  is  not  explained,  even  in  Science 
and  Health,  but  it  seemed  to  originate  with  the  discovery  that 
"  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth,  and  there  was 


«Tbis  theory  is  the  ba?is  of  the  Christian  Srionco  holiof  that  child ren_  born 
of  tlie  flesh  are  not  born  according  to  the  "  science  of  being."  Christian 
Science  discourages  the  birth  of  children  in  the  usual  way,  but  permits  it  as 
"  expedient "  for  the  present.  In  the  future  when,  as  they  believe,  the  world 
shall  be  more  spiritual,  children  will  appear  as  products  of  Spirit  only,  and 
they  will  come  by  whatever  means  they  are  desired.  "  Should  universal  mmd 
or  belief  adopt  the  appearing  of  a  star  as  its  formula  of  creation,  the  advent 
of  mortal  man  would  commence  as  a  star."  "  Belief  may  adopt  any  condition 
whatever,  and  that  will  become  its  imperative  mode  of  cause  and  effect, 
"  Knowledge  will  ,  .  .  diminish  and  lose  estimate  in  the  sight  of  man ; 
and  Spirit  instead  of  matter  be  made  the  basis  of  generation," 


190        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

not  a  man  to  till  the  ground."  Mrs.  Glover  had  already  pointed 
out  that  rain  and  light  were  not  necessary  to  the  growth  of 
vegetation,  and  there  was  not  a  man  to  till  the  ground  because, 
to  quote  Mrs.  Glover,  "  there  was  no  necessity  of  it,"  for  "  the 
earth  brought  forth  spontaneously,  and  man  lived  not  because 
of  matter."  "  Man  was  the  Idea  of  Spirit,  and  this  Idea  tilled 
not  the  ground  for  bread." 

"  But,"  we  are  told  in  that  fatal  second  chapter  of  Genesis, 
"  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth  and  watered  the  whole 
face  of  the  ground,"  That  was  error,  "  the  figurative  mist 
of  earth,"  and  "  that  which  started  from  a  matter  basis," 
in  Mrs.  Glover's  interpretation.  "  And,"  to  quote  Genesis 
again,  "  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  man 
became  a  living  soul."  Here,  then,  was  the  beginning  of  a 
"  belief  of  life  in  matter,"  and  this  belief  has  accompanied  us 
throughout  the  ages.  "  The  first  record,"  says  Science  and 
Health,  "  was  science ;  the  second  was  metaphorical  and  myth- 
ical," and  "  the  supposed  utterances  of  matter." 

Mrs.  Glover  thought  it  was  unfortunate  that  whoever  wrote 
the  first  reports  of  the  creation  had  not,  by  making  judicious 
comments,  indicated  which  was  the  true  and  which  the  make- 
believe  record :  "  Had  the  record  divided  the  first  statement  of 
creation  from  the  fabulous  second,  by  saying  '  after  Truth's 
creation  we  will  name  the  opposite  belief  of  error,  regarding 
the  origin  of  the  universe  and  man,'  it  would  have  separated 
the  tares  from  wheat,  and  we  should  have  reached  sooner  the 
spiritual  significance  of  the  Bible."  But  there  was  no  clue, 
and  the  error  went  on. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  191 

This  man  of  error,  who  was  formed  after  creation  was  fin- 
ished, was  named  Adam.  The  significance  of  his  name  is  not 
explained  in  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  but  in  later 
editions,  Mrs.  Eddy,  ignoring  the  Hebraic  origin  of  the  word, 
gives  it  this  literal  interpretation :  "  Divide  the  name  Adam  into 
two  syllables,  and  it  reads,  A  dam,  or  obstruction."  Adam 
was  to  obstruct  our  growth  in  spirituality.  Adam,  the  belief 
of  life  in  matter,  was  the  first  "  mortal  man,"  and  with  him 
came  sickness,  sin,  and  death,  and  all  the  troop  of  error. 

Adam,  being  a  "  product  of  belief,"  and  Eve  a  product  of 
Adam,  "  both  were  beliefs  of  Life  in  matter."  At  once  they  set 
about  their  "  mortal  "  mischief.  They  ate  of  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge, which  was  "  the  symbol  of  error,"  in  which  originated 
"  theology,  materia  medica,  mesmerism,  and  every  other  'ology 
and  'ism  under  the  sun."  The  fruit  of  the  tree  which  Eve 
gave  to  Adam  was,  Mrs.  Glover  suggested,  "  a  medical  work, 
perhaps." 

The  driving  of  Adam  out  of  Eden  is  "  a  clear  and  distinct 
separation  of  Adam,  error,  from  harmony  and  Truth,  wherein 
Soul  and  Sense,  person  and  Principle,  Spirit  and  matter,  are 
forever  separate."  The  history  of  Adam  and  his  descendants, 
then,  is  one  of  mortality  and  error,  an  evil  dream  that  has  no 
reality,  and  this  is  Mrs.  Glover's  contention.  "  There  is  no 
mortal  man,  or  reality  to  error,"  she  declared.  We  are  not  as 
we  have  thought,  the  descendants  of  Adam ;  but  we  are  the  off- 
spring of  that  first  nameless  man  who  dwelt  with  God  before 
Adam  was.  We  have  been  so  influenced,  however,  by  the 
Adam  belief  that  we  have  lost  sight  of  our  true  inheritance. 

The  immediate  outlook  for  the  sons  of  error  is  not  encourag- 


192       LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ing,  for  we  are  told  that  "  error  will  continue  for  seven  thousand 
years,  from  the  time  of  Adam,  its  origin.  At  the  expiration 
of  this  period  Truth  will  be  generally  comprehended,  and 
science  roll  back  the  darkness  that  now  hides  the  eternal  sun- 
shine and  lift  the  curtain  on  Paradise,  where  earth  produces 
at  the  command  of  Intelhgence,  and  Soul,  instead  of  sense, 
govern  man." 

Mrs.  Glover  believed  thoroughly  that,  in  the  meantime,  it 
was  her  mission  to  restore  to  man  his  original  state  of  spiritu- 
ality. Throughout  the  centuries  since  Adam,  there  has  been 
but  one  other  who  brought  the  message  of  "  science  "  to  man- 
kind. "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  Mrs.  Glover  wrote,  "  was  the  most 
scientific  man  of  whom  we  have  any  record."  "  The  Principle 
He  demonstrated  was  beyond  question,  science,"  and  she  refers 
to  Him  as  "  The  great  Teacher  of  Christian  Science,"  and 
the  "  Pioneer  of  the  science  of  Life." 

Mrs.  Glover's  explanation  of  the  dual  nature  of  Christ  was 
like  Quimby's.  Christ  she  defined  as  God,  or  "  the  Principle 
and  Soul  of  the  man  Jesus ;  constituting  Christ-Jesus,  that  is. 
Principle  and  Idea."  But  Mrs.  Glover  went  farther  than 
Quimby  and  presented  a  new  explanation  of  the  origin  and 
birth  of  Christ.  She  said:  "Why  Jesus  of  Nazareth  stood 
higher  in  the  scale  of  being,  and  rose  proportionately  beyond 
other  men  in  demonstrating  God,  we  impute  to  His  spiritual 
origin.  He  was  the  offspring  of  Soul,  and  not  sense ;  yea,  the 
son  of  God.  The  science  of  being  was  revealed  to  the  virgin 
mother,  who  in  part  proved  the  great  Truth  that  God  is  the 
only  origin  of  man.  The  conception  of  Jesus  illustrated  this 
Truth    and   finished    the    example    of    creation."      The   birth 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  193 

of  Christ  without  a  physical  father  was,  in  Mrs.  Glover's 
idea,  an  advance  toward  the  science  of  being,  which  dis- 
penses not  only  with  the  physical  father,  but  the  physical 
mother  as  well,  and  declares  that  man  is  born  of  Spirit  only. 
In  support  of  her  argument,  Mrs.  Glover  referred  to  the  fact 
that  some  of  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life  propagate  their 
kind  by  self -division,  and  she  said:  "the  butterfly,  bee,  etc., 
propagating  their  species  without  the  male  element  .  .  .  corro- 
borates science,  proving  plainly  that  the  origin  of  the  universe 
and  man  depends  not  on  material  conditions."  Self-division 
and  parthenogenesis  are,  apparently,  held  to  be  less  material 
methods  of  reproduction,  and  less  in  accordance  with  natural 
law,  than  methods  in  which  the  "  male  element  "  is  employed. 

The  idea  that  "  God  is  the  only  author  of  man  "  came  first, 
Mrs.  Glover  said,  to  the  mother  of  Christ,  and  she  demonstrated 
it,  producing  the  child  Jesus.  "  The  illumination  of  spiritual 
sense  had  put  to  silence  personal  sense  with  Mary,  thus  master- 
ing material  law,  and  establishing  through  demonstration  that 
God  is  the  father  of  man,"  she  wrote.  Also :  "  The  belief  that 
life  originates  with  the  sexes  is  strongest  in  the  most  material 
natures ;  whereas  the  understanding  of  the  spiritual  origin  of 
man  cometh  only  to  the  pure  in  heart.  .  .  .  Jesus  was  the  off- 
spring of  Mary's  self-conscious  God-being  in  creative  Wisdom." 

But  the  virgin  mother,  we  are  told,  "  proved  the  great  Truth 
that  God  is  the  only  origin  of  man,"  only  "  in  part."  If  she 
had  proved  it  completely  she  would  have  had  to  dispense  with 
herself  as  mother;  and  in  that  case  Jesus  would  have  been  a 
perfect  demonstration  of  Mrs.  Glover's  "  science  of  being." 
Being  born,  however,  of  an  actual  and  visible  mother,  Jesus 


194<        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

was  not  altogether  free  from  the  universal  illusion  of  personal 
sense.  He  was  the  Idea  of  Principle,  it  is  true,  "  but  born  of 
woman,  that  is,  having  in  part  a  personal  origin,  he  blended 
the  idea  of  Life,  that  is,  God,  with  the  belief  of  Life  in  matter, 
and  became  the  connecting  link  between  science  and  personal 
sense ;  thus  to  mediate  between  God  and  man." 

Although  Mrs.  Glover  wrote  many  a  page  to  prove  that 
Spirit  and  matter  cannot  unite  and  must  forever  be  separate, 
and  was  almost  violently  emphatic  in  her  statement  of  this 
principle,  she  seemed  unconscious  of  the  fact  that,  in  making 
God  the  spiritual  father  of  Jesus,  and  Mary  His  personal 
mother,  and  their  producing  together,  the  child  in  whom  was 
"  blended  "  the  idea  of  God  with  the  belief  of  Life  in  matter, 
she  was  contradicting  at  all  points  the  very  thing  she  was  so 
laboriously  trying  to  prove.  But  Mrs.  Glover  was  never  afraid 
of  contradicting  herself,  and  her  explanation  accounted,  in 
some  manner,  for  the  origin  and  nature  of  Christ,  and  such 
as  it  was,  it  was  made  to  serve  her  purpose. 

It  was,  she  said,  the  Son  of  God,  or  Christ,  who  "  walked 
the  wave  and  stilled  the  tempest,"  healed  the  sick,  restored  the 
blind,  and  declared  that  "  I  and  the  Father  are  one  " ;  and  it 
was  ]\Iary's  son,  or  Jesus,  who  endured  temptation,  suffered  in 
Gethsemane,  and  died  upon  the  cross.  "  Christ,  understanding 
that  Soul  and  body  are  Intelligence  and  its  Idea,  destroyed 
the  belief  that  matter  is  something  to  be  feared  and  that  sick- 
ness and  death  are  superior  to  harmony  and  Life.  His  king- 
dom was  not  of  this  world.  He  understood  Himself  Soul  and 
not  body,  therefore  He  triumphed  over  the  flesh,  over  sin  and 
death.     He  came  to  teach  and  fulfil  this  Truth,  that  established 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  195 

the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  or  reign  of  harmony  on  earth."  But 
the  man  Jesus  was  not  unconscious  of  "  matter  conditions." 
Although,  Mrs.  Glover  thought.  He  "  experienced  few  of  the 
so-called  pleasures  of  personal  sense ;  perhaps  He  knew  its 
pains."  This  illustrated,  also,  that  "  Truth,  in  contact  with 
error,  produced  chemicalisation."  Chemicalisation,  in  Mrs. 
Glover's  vocabulary,  meant  that  when  Truth  and  error,  which 
cannot  mingle,  first  come  together,  the  contact  of  these  two 
opposing  forces,  like  the  two  parts  of  a  Seidlitz  powder,  sets 
up  a  violent  agitation  and  eruption.  This  is  chemicalisation, 
and  during  its  process  Truth  may  sometimes  seem  to  be  affected 
by  error,  but  when  it  subsides  it  is  found  that  error  is  van- 
quished, and  Truth  has  prevailed.  "  Hence,"  said  Mrs.  Glover, 
"  our  Master's  sufferings  came  through  contact  with  sinners ; 
but  Christ,  the  Soul  of  man,  never  suffered."  She  taught  that 
"  Had  the  Master  utterly  conquered  the  belief  of  Life  in  matter, 
He  would  not  have  felt  their  infirmities,  but,"  she  continued, 
"  He  had  not  yet  risen  to  this  His  final  demonstration." 

The  death  on  the  cross  is  interpreted  as  a  "  demonstration  " 
of  "  science."  "  He  r  ermitted  them  the  opportunity  to  destroy 
His  body  mortal,  chat  He  might  furnish  the  proof  of  His 
immortal  body  in  corroboration  of  what  He  taught,  that  the 
Life  of  man  was  God,  and  that  body  and  Soul  are  inseparable. 
.  .  .  Neither  spear  nor  cross  could  harm  Him;  let  them  think 
to  kill  the  body,  and,  after  this,  He  would  convince  those  He 
had  taught  this  science,  He  was  not  dead,  and  possessed  the 
same  body  as  before.  Why  His  disciples  saw  Him  after  the 
burial,  when  others  saw  Him  not,  was  because  they  better  under- 
stood His  explanations  of  the  phenomenon."     Christ  had  "  tri- 


196        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

umphed  over  sense,  and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  having  solved  being  on  its  Principle." 

The  atonement  received  a  new  interpretation.  Atonement 
means  "  at-one-ment  "  with  God,  Mrs.  Glover  said.  "  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  explained  and  demonstrated  his  oneness  with  the 
Father,  for  which  we  owe  Him  endless  love  and  homage."  But 
that  is  all.  There  was  no  sacrifice  on  Calvary.  Christ's  mis- 
sion was  to  show  us  how  to  forsake  the  belief  of  life  in  matter, 
"  but  not  to  do  it  for  us,  or  to  relieve  us  of  a  single  responsi- 
bility in  the  case."  "  '  Work  out  your  own  salvation,'  is  the 
demand  of  Life  and  Love,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  and  to  this  end 
God  worketh  with  you." 

Prayer,  as  commonly  practised,  had  no  place  in  Mrs.  Glover's 
religion,  in  which  God  is  Principle  and  not  Person.  "  To  ad- 
dress Deity  as  a  Person,"  she  said,  "  impedes  spiritual  progress 
and  hides  Truth."  "  Prayer  is  sometimes  employed,  like  a 
Catholic  confession,  to  cancel  sin,  and  this  impedes  Christianity. 
Sin  is  not  forgiven ;  w^e  cannot  escape  its  penalty.  .  .  .  Suffer- 
ing for  sin  is  all  that  destroys  it."  "  When  we  pray  aright, 
we  shall  .  .  .  shut  the  door  of  the  lips,  and  in  the  silent  sanctu- 
ary of  earnest  longings,  deny  sin  and  sense,  and  take  up  the 
cross,  while  we  go  forth  with  honest  hearts,  labouring  to  reach 
Wisdom,  Love,  and  Truth." 

Mrs.  Glover  gave  a  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  Lord's 
prayer,  converting  it  from  a  supplication  to  an  affirmation  of 
the  properties  of  the  Deity  as  she  conceived  them: 

Harmonious  and  eternal  Principle  of  man, 

Nameless  and  Adorable  Intelligence, 

Spiritualise  man; 

Control   the   discords   of  matter   with   the  harmony   of   Spirit. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  197 

Give  us  the  understanding  of  God, 

And  Truth  will  destroy  sickness,  sin,  and  death,  as  it  destroys  the  belief 
of  intelligent  matter. 

And  lead  man  into  Soul,   and  deliver  him   from  personal  sense, 
For  God  is  Truth,  Life,  and  Love  forever.' 

When  Science  and  Health  was  first  published,  Mrs.  Glover 
believed  that  church  organisations,  church  buildings,  and 
"  creeds,  rites,  and  doctrines,"  were  obstructions  to  spiritual 
growth.  "  We  have  no  need  of  creeds  and  church  organisa- 
tions." "  The  mistake  the  disciples  of  Jesus  made  to  found 
religious  organisations  and  church  rites,  if  indeed  they  did 
this,  was  one  the  Master  did  not  make."  "  No  time  was  lost 
by  our  Master  in  organisations,  rites,  and  ceremonies,  or  in 
proselyting  for  certain  forms  of  belief."  "  We  have  no  record 
that  forms  of  church  worship  were  instituted  by  our  great 
spiritual  teacher,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  ...  a  magnificent  edifice 
was  not  the  sign  of  Christ's  church."  "  Church  rites  and  cere- 
monies have  nothing  to  do  with  Christianity  .  .  .  they  draw 
us  toward  material  things  .  .  .  away  from  spiritual  Truth." 
"  Worshipping  in  temples  made  with  hands  ...  is  not  the  true 
worship."  "  The  soft  palm  upturned  to  a  lordly  salary,  and 
architectural  power — making  dome  and  spire  tremulous  with 

'  This  praver  has  been  re-interpreted  in  the  successive  editions  of  Science 
and  Health, 'unci  in  the  last  edition  (1909)  it  reads  as  follows,  the  lines  alter- 
nating with  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  given  in  the  New  Testament : 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven, 

Our  Father-Mother  God,  all  Harmonious, 

Hallowed  be  thy  name, 

Adorable  One, 

Tliy  Kingdom  come, 

Thy  Kingdom  is  come;  Thou  art  ever  present. 

Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven. 

Enable  us  to  know. — as  in  Hearen,  so  on  earth, — Ood  is  omnipotent,  supreme. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  ; 

Give  vs  grace  for  today;  feed  the  famished  affections; 

And  forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors  ; 

And   Lore   is    reflected   in    lore; 

And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil ; 

And  God  leadeth  us  not  into  temptation,  but  delivereth  us  from  am,  disease, 
and  death. 

For  Thine  is  the  Kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever. 

For  Ood  is  infinite,  all  power,  all  Life,  Truth,  Love,  over  all  and  All. 


198        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

beauty,  that  turns  the  poor  and  stranger  from  the  gate,  shuts 
the  door  on  Christianity."  "  The  man  of  sorrows  was  not  in 
danger  from  salaries  or  popularity."  ^ 

Mrs.  Glover's  theory  of  the  origin  of  disease  was  based  upon 
Quimby's  science  of  health.  Her  fundamental  proposition  was, 
like  Quimby's,  that  mind  is  the  only  causation,  and  that  disease, 
as  well  as  all  other  disharmonies  of  man,  is  due  to  man's  stead- 
fast belief  that  his  body  contains  certain  properties  over  which 
his  mind  has  no  control.  But,  enlarging  upon  the  Quimby 
theory,  Mrs.  Glover  declared  that  the  body  itself  is  a  mere 
supposition  which  mankind  has  imagined  for  itself  and  has 
come  to  believe  in  implicitly.  Starting  from  her  standpoint 
that  man  is  an  immortal,  spiritual  being,  having  a  form,  it  is 
true,  as  he  at  present  believes,  but  that  form  being  a  ''  sensa- 
tionless  body,"  an  inanimate  figure,  which  may  live,  breathe, 
and  move,  not  in  accordance  with  any  laws  of  its  own,  but 
in  response  only  to  the  will  of  its  owner,  who  is  Spirit,  Mrs. 
Glover  argued  that  this  spiritual  body  of  man  cannot  see, 
hear,  feel,  smell,  or  taste,  except  as  Spirit  desires.  He  can 
not  think,  or  reason,  or  perform  any  of  the  physical  or  mental 
functions  commonly  attributed  to  man,  only  as  Spirit  wills. 
Spirit,  in  her  idea,  is  the  man.  The  body  is  the  mere  instru- 
ment of  Spirit. 

This  Spirit,  which  governs  the  body  and  owns  it,  is  not 
an  individual  spirit.  There  are  not  just  so  many  bodies  and  an 
equal  number  of  spirits  to  govern  them.      Spirit,  as  described, 

« Since  1875  Mrs.  Eddy's  ideas  of  church  buildings  and  church  organisations 
have  been  considerably  broadened.  Her  organised  churches  are  now  more  than 
SIX  hundred  in  number,  and  her  congresiations  worship  in  costly  temples,  and 
have  a  very  cumplete  ecclesiastical  system  ;  and  the  founder  of  the  church  and 
the  head  of  the  entire  church  system  is  Mrs.   Eddy  herself. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  199 

is  singular,  general,  and  pervasive;  and  mankind,  as  well  as 
trees,  animals,  and  all  phenomena,  is  simply  the  furniture  of 
the  universe,  made  for  the  use  and  convenience  of  universal 
Spirit.  These  sensationless  bodies  of  Spirit  were  not  very 
clearly  defined,  but  in  some  places  in  her  book  Mrs.  Glover  said 
that  they  are  "  immortal  "  and  "  indestructible." 

It  follows  that  this  sensationless  body  cannot,  by  any  possi- 
bility, know,  of  and  by  itself,  either  sickness  or  health.  It 
can  have  no  sensation  whatever,  and  in  Mrs.  Glover's  system, 
this  spiritual  man,  whose  body  is  sensationless,  is  the  only  man 
that  exists.  Man,  as  we  know  him,  a  combination  of  brain, 
nerves,  muscle,  etc.,  is  that  false,  hereditary  image  of  physical 
life  which  we  inherited  from  Adam.  Along  with  our  belief  in 
this  physical  body,  we  have  inherited  a  deeply-rooted  conviction 
that  this  mythical  body  is  capable  of  certain  sensations,  such 
as  sight,  hearing,  etc.,  and  is  susceptible  to  the  influences  of 
the  mythical  physical  conditions  about  it.  This  belief  has  given 
rise  to  other  beliefs,  and  the  result  is  that  man  has  invented 
a  very  intricate  and  complicated  system  of  physical  life,  giving 
names  and  attributes  to  various  parts  of  his  body,  and  clothing 
it  and  feeding  it,  in  the  belief  that  it  requires  clothes  and  food 
for  comfort  and  nourishment.  And,  most  remarkable  of  all, 
he  has  come  to  believe  that  his  body  can  be  sick,  and  can  suffer 
from  a  derangement  of  its  parts.  Labouring  under  this  de- 
lusion, man  has  imagined  that,  by  administering  certain  rem- 
edies to  his  body,  this  mythical  body  will  be  pleased,  and  will 
often  consent  to  get  well.  If  not,  if  man  believes  very  firmly 
that  his  body  is  very  sick,  and  that  it  cannot  get  well,  then 
the  remedies   do  not  please  his  body  and  it  will  not  consent 


200        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

to  get  well.  Then  man  becomes  convinced  that  his  body  ceases, 
of  its  o\vn  volition,  to  live,  and  that  it  is  then  dead  and  has 
no  longer  power  to  see,  smell,  hear,  think,  or  suffer.  He  be- 
lieves also  that  his  spirit,  which  he  imagined  had  been  imprisoned 
within  his  body,  is,  by  the  death  of  his  body,  set  free,  and 
that  it  then  goes  off  to  a  world  inhabited  by  other  spirits  of 
other  dead  bodies,  and  there  continues  to  dwell. 

This,  according  to  Science  and  Health,  is  the  status  of 
"  material  mankind "  to-day.  The  mission  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  to  lead  man  back  to  the  way  of  Truth  and  to  restore  to 
him  his  rightful  spiritual  character  and  the  power  over  his 
body  and  over  all  created  things.  But  the  work  of  Christ  was 
incomplete.  Although  He  gave  His  message,  and  made  His 
demonstration.  He  could  not  finish  His  task  because  of  "  the 
materiality  of  the  age  "  in  which  He  lived.  He  practised  and 
taught  Christian  Science,  and  Mrs.  Glover  went  so  far  as  to 
call  Him  its  "  pioneer  " ;  but  He  left  no  written  statement  of 
its  theory,  no  text-book,  and  no  formula  by  which  His  disciples 
could  permanently  confound  disease.  That  was  left  to  Mrs. 
Glover,  who,  after  centuries  of  ignorance,  and  when  the  world 
had  lost  sight  of  the  real  mission  of  its  Saviour,  appeared  to 
"  this  age  "  to  teach  and  demonstrate  and  write  all  Truth  in 
its  fulness. 

I  In  applying  her  principle  to  the  present  material  conditions, 
Mrs.  Glover  was  emphatic  and  radical ;  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  her  discussions  showed  a  wonderfully  scant  knowledge  of 
matters  that  are  merely  temporary  and  mortal.  This,  however, 
in  the  hght  of  her  science,  would  have  been  considered  a  proof 
of  her  fitness  for  the  task  of  demolishing  mortality,  for  Mrs. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  201 

Glover  came,  not  to  save,  but  to  destroy  all  man-made  knowledge 
and  hmnan  institutions.  In  her  world  of  Spirit,  knowledge  was 
an  outcast,  and  the  less  she  knew  about  what  she  called  the 
"  'ologies  and  'isms  "  the  clearer  and  more  searching  was  her 
spiritual  vision. 

If  man  would  get  out  of  his  material  state  and  into  the  realm 
of  Spirit  and  Intelligence,  he  must  first,  she  told  him,  unlearn 
all  that  he  had  learned.  All  knowledge  is  harmful,  particularly 
a  knowledge  of  physiology,  for  it  creates  false  beliefs,  and,  like 
obedience  to  "  the  so-called  laws  of  health,"  it  multiplies  diseases 
and  increases  the  death  rate.  Materia  medica,  physiology, 
hygiene,  and  drugs  were  the  deadliest  enemies  to  Mrs.  Glover's 
science.  The  hardly-won  knowledge  of  the  physical  scientists 
was,  she  declared,  the  densest  and  most  harmful  ignorance. 
Again  and  again  she  repeated,  "  there  is  no  physical  science," 
and  taught  her  readers  that  all  the  laws  of  nature  were  to  be 
defied  and  set  at  naught.  In  accordance  with  his  spiritual 
nature  and  origin,  man  should  never  admit  the  belief  that  he 
has  a  physical  body,  or  that  he  dwells  in  a  world  of  matter 
which  can  affect  his  body.  All  things  are  at  his  command, 
and  the  behefs  of  cold,  heat,  pain,  or  discomfort,  should  be 
dismissed  at  once ;  and  they  will  disappear.  "  Why,"  Mrs. 
Glover  demanded,  "  should  man  bow  down  to  flesh-brush,  flannel, 
bath,  diet,  exercise,  air,  etc.?"  The  belief  that  man  requires 
food,  clothing,  and  sleep,  she  said,  is  strengthened  by  the  doc- 
tors, and  it  is  the  doctors,  too,  who  are  principally  to  blame 
for  the  existence  and  continuance  of  disease.  Disease  is  a 
habit,  and  the  habit  grows  more  prevalent  as  education  and 
enlightenment  spread,  in  proof  of  which  she  pointed  out  that 


202        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

there  is  less  sickness  among  the  uncivilised  races  and  among 
animals  than  among  the  highly  cultivated  classes.  "  The  less 
mind  there  is  manifested  in  matter,  the  better.  When  the  un- 
thinking lobster  loses  his  claw,  it  grows  again."  If  man  would- 
believe  that  matter  has  no  sensation  "  then  the  human  limb 
would  be  replaced  as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw."  "  Epizootic 
is  an  educated  finery  that  a  natural  horse  has  not."  "  The 
snowbird  sings  and  soars  amid  the  blasts ;  he  has  no  catarrh 
from  wet  feet." 

"  Obesity,"  Mrs.  Glover  wrote,  "  is  an  adipose  belief  of 
yourself  as  a  substance."  "  All  the  diseases  on  earth,"  said 
Science  and  Health,  "  never  interfered  for  a  moment  with  man's 
Life.  Man  is  the  same  after,  as  before  a  bone  is  broken,  or 
a  head  chopped  off."  But  for  the  present,  Mrs.  Glover  ad- 
vised, if  such  accidents  seem  to  occur  one  might  as  well  seem 
to  call  a  surgeon.  "  For  a  broken  bone,  or  dislocated  joint," 
she  wrote  naively,  "  'tis  better  to  call  a  surgeon,  until  mankind 
are  farther  advanced  in  the  treatment  of  mental  science.  To 
attend  to  the  mechanical  part,  a  surgeon  is  needed  to-day  .  .  . 
but  the  time  approaches  when  mind  alone  will  adjust  joints 
and  broken  bones,  if,"  she  added,  "  such  things  were  possible 
then." 

Food  is  not  necessary  to  nourish  and  sustain  the  body. 
"  We  have  no  evidence,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  of  food  sustaining 
Life,  except  false  evidence."  "  We  learn  in  science  food  neither 
helps  nor  harms  man."  Yet  Mrs.  Glover  took  care  to  warn 
her  readers  not  to  be  too  radical  on  this  point.  "  To  stop 
utterly  eating  and  drinking,"  she  said,  "  until  your  belief 
changes  in  regard  to  these  things,  were  error,"  and  she  ad- 


HISTORY  OP  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  203 

raonished  them  to  "  get  rid  of  your  beliefs  as  fast  as  possible." 
In  treating  a  patient,  who  is  under  the  delusion  of  sickness, 
there  is  a  stated  method.  It  must  first  be  thoroughly  understood 
that  his  disease  has  its  origin  in  the  mind.  His  body  may  seem 
to  suffer  because  it  is  at  the  mercy  of  his  mind,  and  as  long 
as  his  mind  retains  "  a  mental  image  "  of  toothache,  cancer, 
tuberculosis,  fever,  dyspepsia,  or  any  form  of  bodily  discomfort, 
his  body  will  respond  and  will  seem  to  develop  the  particular 
belief  of  sickness  that  is  in  his  mind.  The  object,  then,  is  to 
abolish  the  mental  picture  of  disease.  The  Christian  Science 
healer  "  in  case  of  decaying  lungs,  destroys  in  the  mind  of  his 
patient  this  belief,  and  the  Truth  of  being  and  immortality  of 
man  assert  themselves  .  .  .  and  the  lungs  become  sound  and 
regain  their  original  proportions."  The  belief  in  the  mind  of 
the  patient  is  not  always  easily  destroyed,  but  the  healer  must 
be  patient.  "  When  healing  the  sick,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  make 
your  mental  plea,  or  better,  take  your  spiritual  position  that 
heals,  silently  at  first,  until  you  begin  to  win  the  case,  and 
Truth  is  getting  the  better  of  error."  That  is,  while  the 
patient  is  lying  before  you,  convulsed  with  pain,  you  must 
retreat  within  yourself  and  fight  out  the  disease  in  a  mental 
argument  with  error,  contending  that  there  is  no  pain  and 
that  the  patient  is  deluded.  This  course,  faithfully  pursued, 
according  to  Science  and  Health,  will  result  in  an  overwhelming 
conviction  that  the  patient  is  not  held  in  the  throes  of  error, 
and  the  disease  will  begin  to  subside.  "  Then  your  patient  is 
fit  to  listen,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "  and  you  can  say  to  him, 
'  Thou  art  whole,'  without  his  scorn."  She  advised  the  healer 
to   "  explain   to  him   audibly,   sometimes,  the  power  mind  has 


204        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

over  body,  and  give  him  a  foundation  ...  to  lean  upon,  that 
he  may  brace  himself  against  old  opinions."  '*  The  battle  lies 
wholly  between  minds,  and  not  bodies,  to  break  down  the  beliefs 
of  personal  sense,  or  pain  in  matter,  and  stop  its  supposed 
utterances,  so  that  the  voice  of  Soul,  the  immortality  of  man, 
is  heard." 

As  a  preventative  of  disease.  Christian  Science  is  equally 
effective.  "  You  can  prevent  or  cure  scrofula,  hereditary  dis- 
ease, etc.,  in  just  the  ratio  you  expel  from  mind  a  belief  in  the 
transmission  of  disease,  and  destroy  its  mental  images ;  this  will 
forestall  the  disease  before  it  takes  tangible  shape  in  mind, 
that  forms  its  corresponding  image  on  the  body."  "  When 
the  first  symptoms  of  disease  appear,  knowing  they  gain  their 
ground  in  mind  before  they  can  in  body,  dismiss  the  first  mental 
admission  that  you  are  sick;  dispute  sense  with  science,  and 
if  you  can  annul  the  false  process  of  law,-  alias  your  belief  in 
the   case,   you   will   not   be   cast   into   prison   or   confinement." 

',  "  Speak  to  disease  as  one  having  authority  over  it."     "  Not  to 

'  admit  disease,  is  to  conquer  it." 

One  of  the  signs  that  the  healer's  efforts  are  successful,  and 
that  Truth  is  working  against  error  in  the  patient  is  "  chem- 
icalisation,"  which  has  been  previously  referred  to  in  this  chap- 
ter. In  healing,  chemicalisation  first  shows  itself  in  a  violent 
aggravation  of  all  the  patient's  symptoms  of  disease,  but  neither 
the  patient  nor  the  healer  should  be  alarmed  at  this.  It  is  a 
beneficial  process,  and  during  it  the  error  or  poisonous  thought 
in  the  patient's  system  will  be  thrown  off,  and  when  it  is  over 
the  patient  will  be  well. 

The  patient  can  be  treated  just  as  effectively  without  the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  205 

bodily  presence  of  his  healer,  for  the  healer's  mind  can  work 
upon  the  mind  of  his  patient  equally  "well,  be  he  absent  or  present. 
Absent  treatment  is,  therefore,  regularly  practised  in  Christian 
Science. 

Despite  Mrs.  Glover's  protest  against  all  "  knowledge,"  she 
seemed  to  admit  that  her  healers  should  know  something  of 
physiology  and  materia  medica,  sufficient,  at  least,  to  recog- 
nise symptoms  and  to  understand  the  names  of  both  symptoms 
and  diseases.  "  When  healing  mentally,"  she  wrote,  "  call  each 
symptom  by  name,  and  contradict  its  claims,  as  you  would  a 
falsehood  uttered  to  your  injury,"  for  "  if  you  call  not  the 
disease  by  name,  when  you  address  it  mentally,  the  body  will 
no  more  respond  by  recovery  than  a  person  will  reply  whose 
name  is  not  spoken ;  and  you  can  not  heal  the  sick  by  argument, 
unless  you  get  the  name  of  the  disease."  That  is,  if  a  patient 
happened  to  be  labouring  under  the  belief  that  he  was  afflicted 
with  yellow  fever,  and  the  lay  healer,  whose  knowledge  of  medical 
science  is,  by  the  terms  of  his  religion,  as  limited  as  he  can 
possibly  make  it,  did  not  recognise  the  disease,  and  was  ignorant 
of  its  name,  then  the  healer  could  not  heal,  and  Truth  would 
stand  powerless  while  the  patient  died  of  this  rare  and  un- 
familiar belief. 

In  the  contemplation  of  death,  Mrs.  Glover  did  not  weaken 
in  theory.  Death  is  the  great  and  final  test  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence. It  is,  she  said,  "  the  last  enemy  to  be  overcome,"  and 
"  much  is  to  be  understood  before  we  gain  this  great  point 
in  science."  Healers  must  "  never  consent  to  the  death  of  man, 
but  rise  to  the  supremacy  of  spirit."  But  whether  or  not  they 
consent  to  it,  Mrs.  Glover  recognised  that  death,  although  false. 


206        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

is,  for  the  present,  an  incontrovertible  fact.  "  Contemplating 
a  corpse,"  she  wrote,  "  we  behold  the  going  out  of  a  belief." 
One  might  conclude,  from  Mrs.  Glover's  reasoning,  that  a 
"  corpse  "  might  be  exactly  that  "  immortal  "  and  "  sensation- 
less  "  body  which  belongs  to  Spirit.  The  belief  of  Life  in 
matter  has  "  gone  out."  It  is  as  "  sensationless  "  as  it  is  pos- 
sible to  be.  Yet  the  all-powerful  and  all-pervading  Principle, 
of  which  she  said  so  many  things,  never  quickens  a  "  corpse  " 
nor  works  its  wonders  through  the  dead. 

But  in  spite  of  her  statement  that  death  is  "  the  going  out 
of  a  belief,"  Mrs.  Glover  said  In  another  passage :  "  If  the 
change  called  death  dispossessed  man  of  the  belief  of  pleasure 
and  pain  in  the  body,  universal  happiness  were  secure  at  the 
moment  of  dissolution ;  but  this  is  not  so ;  every  sin  and  every 
error  we  possess  at  the  moment  of  death  remains  after  it  the 
same  as  before,  and  our  only  redemption  is  in  God,  the  Principle 
of  man,  that  destroys  the  belief  of  intelligent  bodies." 

The  system  seems  altogether  hopeless  if  one  attempts  to 
follow  Mrs.  Glover's  reasoning.  If  a  mortal  man's  belief  in 
material  life  continues  even  after  his  mortal  and  material  life 
is  dissolved,  it  being  all  the  time  understood  that  "  belief," 
"  material  life,"  and  "  mortal  man  "  are  one  and  the  same, 
then  what  chance  has  man  to  become  separated  from  his  belief 
in  himself.?  Mrs.  Glover  had  a  suspicion  that  all  this  was 
confusing  and  tried  to  help  it  out.  "  From  the  sudden  sur- 
prise," she  wrote,  "  of  finding  all  that  is  mortal  unreal,  .  .  . 
the  question  arises,  who  or  what  is  it  that  believes.?  " 

"  God  is  the  only  Intelligence,  and  can  not  believe  because 
He  understands.  .  .  .  Intelligence  Is  Soul  and  not  sense.  Spirit 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  207 

and  not  matter,  and  God  is  the  only  Intelligence,  and  there  is 
but  one  God,  hence  there  are  no  believers !  "  That  is  the  an- 
swer. "  So  far  as  this  statement  is  understood,  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted," said  Mrs.  Glover ;  and  who  shall  say  that  she  is  not 
right  .'^ 

Among  the  many  incidental  ideas  which  Mrs.  Glover  added  | 
to  Quimbyism  is  her  qualified  disapproval  of  marriage.  Quimby  \ 
had  a  large  family  and  saw  nothing  unspiritual  in  marriage ; 
and  although  Mrs.  Glover  had  twice  been  married,  and  became 
a  wife  for  the  third  time  a  year  later,  she  believed  that  marriage 
had  not  a  very  firm  spiritual  basis.  In  defining  the  real  pur- 
pose of  marriage  she  said  nothing  about  children.  "  To  hap- 
pify  existence  by  constant  intercourse  with  those  adapted  to 
elevate  it,  is  the  true  purpose  of  marriage."  "  The  scientific 
morale  of  marriage  is  spiritual  unity.  .  .  .  Proportionately  as 
human  generation  ceases,  the  unbroken  links  of  eternal  har- 
monious being  will  be  spiritually  discerned."  ^ 

In  addition  to  the  development  of  her  "  science,"  Mrs.  Glover 
described  a  later  discovery  in  regard  to  it.  Some  of  her  "  false 
students,"  she  said,  were  substituting  mesmerism  for  "  science  " 
when  healing  the  sick.  The  chapters  called  "  Imposition  and 
Demonstration,"  and  "  Healing  the  Sick,"  are  largely  taken 
up  with  an  account  of  how  this  false  doctrine,  which  is  a  per- 
version of  Christian  Science,  originated,  and  a  warning  of  its 
evil  effects.  This  practice  of  mesmerism  was  the  forerunner 
of  what  she  later  called  "  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism."     The 


"In  a  chapter  called  "Wedlock."  in  Miscellaneous  Writings  <  1897V  Mrs. 
Eddv,  after  an  evasive  discussion  of  the  subject,  squarely  puts  the  question: 
"  Is"  marriage  nearer  richt  than  celibac.v?  Human  knowledsre  inculcates  that 
it  is,  while  Science  indicates  that  it  is  not."  Also  :_  "Human  nature  lias 
bestowed  on  a  wife  the  risht  to  become  a  mother;  but  if  the  wife  esteems  not 
this  privilege,  by  mutual" consent,  exalted  and  increased  affections,  she  may 
win  a  higher." 


208        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

story  of  its  origin  and  development  will  be  told  in  the  next 
chapter. 

The  book,  Science  and  Health,  has,  since  1875,  been  through 
nearly  five  hundred  editions.  It  has  been  revised  and  edited 
many  times  since  the  original  version  appeared,  and  there  have 
been  important  additions  to  the  doctrine  from  time  to  time; 
but  tlie  first  edition  contained,  in  the  main,  the  body  of  the 
Christian  Science  faith  as  it  is  to-day.  The  first  three  editions 
of  Science  and  Health  were  marred  by  bitter  personal  references 
to  those  whom  Mrs.  Glover  considered  her  enemies.  These  de- 
nunciations were  summed  up  in  a  chapter  called  "  Demonology," 
which  was  published  in  the  third  edition  (see  chapter  xii). 
Mrs.  Glover  was  persuaded  by  Rev.  James  H.  Wiggin,  her 
literary  adviser,  to  omit  this  chapter  from  later  editions,  on 
the  groimd  that  it  was  libellous.  The  "  Key  to  the  Scriptures  " 
was  added  to  the  book  in  1884.  It  consisted  originally  of  a 
"  Glossary,"  in  which  certain  words  in  the  Bible  were  given 
new  meanings  through  Mrs.  Glover's  spiritual  interpretation. 
For  example,  "  death "  is  said  to  mean  "  an  illusion " ; 
*-— i«  Mother,"  should  read  "  God  " ;  evening  is  "  mistiness  of 
mortal  thought  " ;  "  bridegroom  "  is  "  spiritual  understanding," 
etc.  This  glossary  was  for  the  use  of  her  students  in  reading 
the  Bible.  The  most  conspicuous  addition  to  the  doctrine  is 
contained  in  the  chapter  called  "  Apocalypse,"  which  was  first 
printed  in  1886.  In  this  chapter  Mrs.  Eddy  adopts  a  belief 
similar  to  the  belief  the  Shakers  entertain  of  their  founder, 
Ann  Lee,  namely,  that  she  is  the  woman  referred  to  in  the 
Apocalypse,  and  represents  the  "  feminine  principle  of  Deity."  ^° 

">  For    othor    similarities    to    be    found    between    tlie    religious    beliefs    of    the 
Shai£crs  and  Christian  Science,  see  Appendix  C. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  209 

From  the  study  of  Quimby's  theory,  as  given  in  chapter  iii, 
and  the  foregoing  statement  of  Mrs.  Glover's  more  elaborate 
system,  as  contained  in  Science  and  Health,  it  will  be  seen 
that  Quimby's  "  science  of  man,"  as  he  tried  to  teach  and 
practise  it,  was  simply  a  new  way  of  applying  an  old  truth; 
and  that  Mrs.  Glover,  in  the  process  of  making  Quimby's  idea 
her  own,  merely  added  to  it  certain  abnormalities,  which,  if 
universally  believed  and  practised,  would  make  of  Christian 
Science  the  revolt  of  a  species  against  its  own  physical  struc- 
ture; against  its  relation  to  its  natural  physical  environment; 
against  the  needs  of  its  own  physical  organism,  and  against 
the  perpetuation  of  its  kind.  But  in  spite  of  the  radical 
doctrines  laid  down  in  Science  and  Health,  neither  Mrs.  Glover 
nor  her  followers  attempted  to  practise  them  in  their  daily 
lives ;  nor  do  they  do  so  now.  In  relation  to  their  physical 
existence  and  surroundings,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  all  Christian  Scien- 
tists live  exactly  as  other  people  do ;  and  while  they  write  and 
teach  that  physical  conditions  should  be  ignored,  and  the  seem- 
ing life  of  the  material  world  denied,  they  daily  recognise  their 
own  mortality,  and  have  a  very  lively  sense  of  worldly  thrift 
and  prosperity.  Mrs.  Eddy's  philosophy  makes  a  double  ap- 
peal to  human  nature,  offering  food  both  to  our  inherent 
craving  for  the  mystical  and  to  our  desire  to  do  well  in  a  worldly 
way,  and  teaching  that  these  extremes  are  not  incompatible  In 
"  science."  Indeed,  as  one  of  the  inducements  offered  to  pur- 
chasers of  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Glover 
advertised  it  as  a  book  that  "  affords  opportunity  to  acquire  a 
profession  by  which  you  can  accumulate  a  fortune,"  and  in  the 
book  itself  she  said  that  "  Men  of  business  have  said  this  science 


210  LIFE  OF  IVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

was  of  great  advantage  from  a  secular  point  of  view."  And 
in  later  and  more  prosperous  days  Mrs.  Eddy  has  written  in 
satisfied  retrospect:  "In  the  early  history  of  Christian  Science 
among  my  thousands  of  students  few  were  wealthy.  Now, 
Christian  Scientists  are  not  indigent;  and  their  comfortable 
fortunes  are  acquired  by  healing  mankind  morally,  physically, 
and  spiritually."  Whatever  may  be  the  Christian  Science 
theories  regarding  the  nothingness  of  other  forms  of  matter, 
the  various  forms  of  currency  continue  to  appear  very  real 
to  the  spiritualised  vision  of  its  followers.  Mrs.  Eddy  insists 
that  her  healers  shall  be  well  paid.  The  matter  of  payment 
has,  she  thinks,  an  effect  upon  the  patient  who  pays.  She 
says :  "  Christian  Science  demonstrates  that  the  patient  who 
pays  what  he  is  able  to  pay  is  more  apt  to  recover  than  he 
who  withholds  a  slight  equivalent  for  health."  Worldly  pros- 
perity, indeed,  plays  an  important  part  in  the  Christian  Science 
religion  to-day.  It  is,  singularly  enough,  considered  a  sign 
of  spirituality  in  a  Christian  Scientist.  Poverty  is  believed 
to  be  an  error,  like  sin,  sickness,  and  death ;  ^^  and  Christian 
Scientists  aim  to  make  what  they  call  their  "  financial  demon- 
stration "  early  in  their  experience.  A  poor  Christian  Scientist 
is  as  much  of  an  anomaly  as  a  sick  Christian  Scientist. 

"  We  were  demonstrating  over  a  lack  of  means,  which  we  had  learned  was 
just  as  much  a  claim  of  error  to  be  overcome  with  Truth  as  ever  sickness 
or  sin    vas. — Contributor   to   the   Christian   Science  Journal,  September,    189S. 

The  lack  of  means  is  a  lupine  ghost  sired  by  the  same  spectre  as  the  lack 
of  health,  and  both  must  be  mot  and  put  to  flight  by  the  same  mighty  moans  of 
our  spiritual  warfare. — Contributor  to  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  October, 
1904. 


CHAPTER  XII 

MRS.  eddy's  belief  THAT  SHE  SUFFERED  FOR  THE  SINS  OF  OTHERS 

liETTERS    TO    STUDENTS THE    ORIGIN    AND    DEVELOPMENT 

OF    MALICIOUS   ANIMAL   MAGNETISM A    REVIVAL   OF    WITCH- 
CRAFT 

Indeed,  one  of  the  most  primitive  and  fundamental  shapes  which  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  takes  in  the  savage  mind,  is  the  assumed  con- 
nection between  disease  or  death  and  some  malevolent  personal  agency.  .  .  . 
The  minds  of  civilised  people  have  become  familiar  with  the  conception  of 
natural  law,  and  that  conception  has  simply  stifled  the  old  superstition  as 
clover  chokes  out  weeds.  .  .  .  The  disposition  to  believe  was  one  of  the 
oldest  inheritances  of  the  human  mind,  while  the  capacity  for  estimating 
evidence  in  cases  of  physical  causation  is  one  of  its  very  latest  and  most 
laborious  acquisitions. — -John  Fisice. 

At  the  beginning  of  1877,  her  seventh  year  as  a  teacher 
in  Lynn,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  Science  were  httle  known  outside 
of  Essex  County,  though  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health 
had  been  pubHshed  more  than  a  year  before,  and  the  author 
was  busy  preparing  a  second  edition.  Her  loyal  students, 
however,  believed  that  she  was  on  the  way  to  obtain  wider 
recognition.  Miss  Dorcas  Rawson,  Mrs.  Miranda  Rice,  and 
Daniel  Spofford  laboured  unceasingly  for  her  interests.  Mr. 
Eddy,  immediately  upon  his  marriage,  withdrew  from  practice, 
dropping  the  patients  he  had  taken  over  from  Mr.  Spofford,  and 
devoted  himself  entirely  to  his  wife's  service.  Three  days  after 
her  marriage  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  one  of  her  students  conceming 
Mr.  Eddy :  "  I  feel  sure  that  I  can  teach  my  husband  up  to  a 

3U 


212        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

higher  usefulness,  to  purity,  and  the  higher  development  of  all 
his  latent  noble  qualities  of  head  and  heart." 

In  spite  of  the  frequent  jars  and  occasional  lawsuits  between 
Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  students,  new  candidates  for  instruction 
were  constantly  attracted  by  the  Science  taught  at  Number  8 
Broad  Street,  where  the  large  sign,  "  Mary  B.  Glover's  Chris- 
tian Scientists'  Home "  still  aroused  the  curiosity  of  the 
stranger. 

The  Christian  Science  faith  has,  from  the  beginning,  owed 
its  growth  to  its  radical  principle  that  sickness  of  soul  and 
body  are  delusions  which  can  be  dispelled  at  will,  and  that  the 
natural  state  of  the  human  creature  is  characterised  by  health, 
happiness,  and  goodness.  The  message  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
brought  to  Lynn  was  substantially  that  God  is  not  only  all- 
good,  all-powerful,  and  all-present,  but  that  there  is  nothing 
but  God  in  all  the  Universe;  that  evil  is  a  non-existent  thing, 
a  sinister  legend  which  has  been  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  until  it  has  become  a  fixed  belief.  Mrs.  Eddy's 
mission  was  to  uproot  this  implanted  belief  and  to  emancipate 
the  race  from  the  terrors  which  had  imprisoned  it  for  so  many 
thousands  of  years.  "  Ye  shall  know  the  Truth,"  she  said, 
"  and  the  Truth  shall  make  you  free." 

Yet  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  was  not  always  well,  was  not  always 
happy.  She  used  at  first  to  account  for  this  seeming  incon- 
sistency by  explaining  that  she  bore  in  her  own  person  the  ills 
from  which  she  released  others.  When  sick  or  distraught,  Mrs. 
Eddy  frequently  reminded  her  students  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
bruised  for  our  transgressions  and  bore  upon  His  shoulders 
the  sin  and  weakness  of  the  world  He  came  to  save.     She 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  213 

apparently  did  not  realise  that  Christ,  by  the  very  act  of  His 
atonement,  admitted  the  reality  of  sin,  while  she,  having  denied 
its  existence,  had  forfeited  any  logical  right  to  suffer  because 
of  it.  The  missionary  who  frees  the  savage  from  the  fear  of 
demons  and  witchcraft,  and  the  nurse  who  assures  the  child 
that  there  is  no  evil  thing  lurking  for  him  in  the  dark,  do  not 
suffer  from  the  enlightenment  they  bring,  and  they  do  not 
assume  the  fear  wliich  the  child  casts  off.  Mrs.  Eddy,  on  the 
contrary,  for  many  years  believed  that  she  herself  suffered 
from  the  torturing  belief  she  had  taken  away  from  others.  The 
reader  will  remember  that  in  1863  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  Dr. 
Quimby  that  while  treating  her  nephew,  Albert  Tilton,  to  rid 
him  of  the  habit  of  smoking,  she  herself  felt  a  desire  to  smoke. 
By  1877  Mrs.  Eddy  not  only  believed  that  she  suffered  from 
the  physical  ills  from  which  her  students  were  released,  but 
declared  that  her  students  followed  her  in  thought  and  selfishly 
took  from  her  to  feed  their  own  weakness.  The  work  upon  the 
second  edition  of  her  book  could  not  go  on  because  they  nour- 
ished themselves  upon  her  and  sapped  her  powers. 

By  the  1st  of  April,  three  months  after  her  marriage  to 
Mr.  Eddy,  she  was  almost  in  despair,  and  on  April  7th  she 
wrote  one  of  her  students :  "  I  sometimes  think  I  can  not  hold 
on  till  the  next  edition  is  out.  Will  you  not  help  me  so  far  as 
is  in  your  power,  in  this  way.?  Take  Miss  Norman,  she  is  an 
interesting  girl  and  help  her  through.  She  will  work  for  the 
cause  but  she  will  swamp  me  if  you  do  not  take  hold.  I  am 
at  present  such  a  tired  swimmer,  unless  you  do  this  I  have  more 
than  I  can  carry  at  present.  Direct  your  thoughts  and  every- 
body's else  that  you  can  away  from  me,  don't  talk  of  me." 


214j        life  of  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

A  week  later  she  fulfilled  an  old  threat,  and,  attended  by  her 
husband,  went  away  for  some  weeks,  leaving  no  address ; 
"  driven,"  as  she  said,  "  into  the  wilderness."  She  felt  that 
if  her  students  did  not  know  her  whereabouts,  their  minds  could 
not  so  persistently  prey  upon  hers.  The  following  letter  to 
Daniel  SpofFord  is  postmarked  Boston,  April  14th,  but  seems 
to  have  been  written  upon  the  eve  of  jMrs.  Eddy's  flight  from 
Lynn. 

Dear  Student— This  hour  of  my  departure  I  pick  up  from  the  carpet 
a  piece  of  paper  v/rite  you  a  line  to  say  I  avi  at  length  driven  into  the 
wilderness.  Everything  needs  me  in  science,  my  doors  are  thronged,  the 
book  lies  waiting,  but  tliose  who  call  on  me  mentally  in  suffering  are  in 
belief  killing  me!  Stopping  my  work  that  none  but  me  can  do  in  their 
supreme  selfishness;  how  unlike  the  example  I  have  left  them!  Tell 
this  to  Miss  Brown,  Mr.  McLauthlen,  Mrs.  Atkinson,  and  Miss  Norman* 
but  do  not  let  them  know  they  ccm  call  on  me  thus  if  they  are  doing  this 
ignorantly  and  if  they  do  it  consciously  tell  McLauthlen  and  them  all 
it  would  be  no  greater  crime  for  them  to  come  directly  and  thrust  a 
dagger  into  my  heart  they  are  just  as  surely  in  belief  killing  me  and 
committing   murder. 

The  sin  lies  at  their  door  and  for  them  to  meet  its  penalty  sometime. 
You  can  teach  them  better,  see  you  do  this. 

O!  Harry j^'  the  book  must  stop.  I  can  do  no  more  now  if  ever.  They 
lay  on  me  suffering  inconceivable.  Mary. 

If  the  students  will  continue  to  think  of  me  and  call  on  me,  I  shall  at 
last  defend  myself  and  this  will  be  to  cut  them  off  from  me  utterly  in 
a  spiritual  sense  by  a  bridge  they  cannot  pass  over  and  the  effect  of 
this  on  them  they  will  then  learn. 

I  will  let  you  hear  from  me  as  soon  as  I  can  bear  this  on  account  of  my 
health;  and  will  return  to  prosecute  my  work  on  the  Book  as  soon  as  I 
can  safely.  I  am  going  far  away  and  shall  remain  until  you  will  do 
your  part  and  give  me  some  better  prospect. 

Ever  trttly, 

Mary. 

v/..!!?"'"  °^  ^^'T-  ^f'i^^l's  students.     Miss  Brown  was  an  invalid  of  Ipswich.     Miss 
Noinian  was  also  of  Ipswich,  and  a  friend  of  Miss  Brown.     Mrs.  Atkinson  was 

nn.^nnf J!., „•''"/   ••^^'\".'='"»   "^  Newburyport.     Mr.   George  T.   McLauthlen  was 
a   ni.TniifiU'tnror  of  niaclunory  in   Boston. 

him^''lla'iTv  ""''^  ^^'l^^stian  name  is  Daniel  Harrison.     Mrs.  Eddy  always  called 


HISTORY  OP  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  ^15 

Mrs.  Eddy  believed  that  her  students  not  only  depended  upon 
her  for  their  own  moral  and  physical  support,  but  that,  when 
treating  their  patients,  their  minds  naturally  turned  to  her, 
in  whom  dwelt  the  healing  principle,  and  unconsciously  coupled 
her  in  thought  with  the  ill  of  the  patient,  which  was  thus  trans- 
ferred to  her. 

Even  after  she  had  escaped  into  solitude,  the  book  progressed 
but  slowly,  and  she  complained  that  whenever  she  had  succeeded 
in  concentrating  herself  upon  her  work,  the  beliefs  (illnesses) 
of  other  people  would  seize  her  "  as  sensibly  as  a  hand."  From 
Boston,  shortly  after  her  departure,  she  wrote  to  a  trusted 
student  one  of  those  incoherent  letters  which  indicate  the  ex- 
citement under  which  Mrs.  Eddy  sometimes  laboured. 

April,  1877,  Sunday. 
Dear  Student:  I  am  in  Boston  to-day  feeling  very  very  little  better 
for  the  five  weeks  that  are  gone.  I  cannot  finish  the  Key '  yet  I  will 
be  getting  myself  and  all  of  a  sudden  I  am  seized  as  sensibly  by  some 
others  belief  as  the  hand  could  lay  hold  of  me  my  sufferings  have  made 
me  utterly  weaned  from  this  plane  and  if  my  husband  was  only  willing 
to  give  me  up  I  would  gladly  yield  up  the  ghost  of  tliis  terrible  earth 
plane  and  join  those  nearer  my  Life.  .  .  .  Cure  Miss  Brown*  or  I 
shall  never  finish  my  book.     Truly  yrs.  M. 

A   letter   to  Mr.    SpofFord,   written   a   week   after   she  left 

Lynn,  and  postmarked  Fair  Haven,  Conn.,  shows  that  despite 

her  sufferings  she  was  eagerly  planning  for  the  second  edition 

of  her  book  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  cold  reception  of 

the  first  edition,  her  faith  in  its  ultimate  success  was  unshaken. 

April  19,  1877. 
My   Dear   Stotdent,     ...     I    will   consider   the   arrangement   for   em- 
bellishing the  book.     I  had  fixed  on  the  picture  of  Jesus  and  a  sick  man — 
the  hand  of  the  former  outstretched  to  him  as  in  rebuke  of  the  disease; 


^  Key   to   the   Scriptures. 

*  The  student  from  Ipswich  referred  to  in  the  preceding  letter. 


216        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

or  waves  and  an  ark.  The  last  will  cost  less  I  conclude  and  do  as  well. 
No  rainbow  can  be  made  to  look  right  except  in  colours  and  that  cannot 
be  conveniently  arranged  in  gilt.  Now  for  the  printing — would  480  pages 
include  the  Key  to  Scriptures  and  the  entire  work  as  it  now  is?  The 
book  entitled  Science  and  Health  is  to  embrace  the  chapter  on  Physiology 
all  the  same  as  if  this  chapter  was  not  compiled  in  a  separate  volume; 
perhaps  you  so  understand  it.  If  the  cost  is  what  you  stated,  I  advise 
you  to  accept  the  terms  for  I  am  confident  in  the  sale  of  two  editions 
more  there  can  be  a  net  income  over  and  above  it  all.  If  I  get  my  health 
again  I  can  make  a  large  demand  for  the  book  for  I  shall  lecture  and 
this  will  sell  one  edition  of  a  thousand  copies  (if  I  can  stand  it).  I  am 
better,  some.  One  circumstance  I  will  name.  The  night  before  I  left, 
and  before  I  wrote  you  those  fragments,  Miss  Brown  went  into  con- 
vulsions from  a  chemical,  was  not  expected  to  live,  but  came  out  of  it 
saying  she  felt  perfectly  well  and  as  well  as  before  the  injury  supposed 
to  have  been  received.  I  thought  at  that  time  if  she  was  not  "born 
again  "  the  Mother  would  die  in  her  labours.  O,  how  little  my  students  can 
know  what  it  all  costs  me.  Now,  I  thank  you  for  relieving  me  a  little 
in  the  other  case,  please  see  her  twice  a  week;  in  healing  you  are  benefit  ting 
yourself,  in  teaching  you  are  benefitting  others.  I  would  not  advise  you 
to  change  business  at  present  the  rolling  stone  gathers  no  moss;  persevere 
in  one  line  and  you  can  do  much  more  than  to  continually  scatter  your 
fire.  Try  to  get  students  into  the  field  as  practitioners  and  thus  healing 
will  sell  the  book  and  introduce  the  science  more  than  aught  but  my 
lecturing  can  do.  Send  the  name  of  any  you  can  get  to  study  for  the 
purpose  of  practising  and  in  six  months  or  thereabouts  we  will  have  them 
in  the  field  helping  you.  If  you  have  ears  to  hear  you  will  understand. 
Send  all  letters  to  Boston.  T.  O.  Gilbert  will  forward  them  to  me  at 
present. 

Now  for  the  writings  you  named.  I  will  make  an  agreement  with  you 
to  publish  the  book  the  three  j'ears  from  the  time  you  took  it  and  have 
twenty-five  per  cent  royalty  paid  me;  at  the  end  of  this  period  we  will 
make  other  arrangements  or  agreements  or  continue  those  we  have  made 
just  as  the  Spirit  shall  direct  me.  I  feel  this  is  the  best  thing  for  the 
present  to  decide  upon.  During  these  years  we  shall  have  a  treasurer 
such  as  we  shall  agree  upon  and  the  funds  deposited  in  his  or  her  hands 
and  drawn  for  specified  purposes,  at  the  end  of  these  three  years  if  we 
dissolve  partnership  the  surplus  amount  shall  be  equally  divided  between 
us;  and  this  is  the  best  I  can  do.  All  the  years  I  have  expended  on  that 
book,  the  labour  I  am  still  performing,  and  all  I  have  done  for  students 
and  the  cause  gratuitously,  entitle  me  to  some  income  now  that  I  am 
unable  to  work.     But  as  it  is  I  have  none  and  instead  am  sued  for  $2,700* 

''  Kefcreiue  to  George  W.  Barry's  suit  for  payment  for  services  rendered. 
See  Chapter  X. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  217 

for  what?   for  just  tliis,   I  have  allowed  my  students  to  think  I  have  no 
rights,  and  they  can  not  wrong  me ! 

May  God  open  their  eyes  at  length. 

If  you  conclude  not  to  carry  the  work  forward  on  the  terms  named, 
it  will  have  to  go  out  of  edition  as  I  can  do  no  more  for  it,  and  I  believe 
this  hour  is  to  try  my  students  who  think  they  have  the  cause  at  heart 
and  see  if  it  be  so.  My  husband  is  giving  all  his  time  and  means  to  help 
me  up  from  the  depths  in  which  these  students  plunge  me  and  this  is  all 
he  can  do  at  present.     Please  write  soon. 

As   ever, 

Mary. 

Send  me  the  two  books  that  are  corrected  and  just  as  soon  as  you 
can,  and  I  with  Gilbert  will  read  them.* 

Please  tell  me  if  you  are  going  to  have  the  chapter  on  Physiology  in  a 
book  by  itself  that  I  may  get  the  preface  ready  as  soon  as  I  am  able. 

I  do  nothing  else  when  I  have  a  day  I  can  work.  Will  send  you  the 
final  corrections  soon. 

Think  of  me  when  you  feel  strong  and  well  only,  and  think  only  of  me 
as  well 

Ever  yrs.  in 

Truth 

Mary. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that,  liowever  incoherent  Mrs.  Eddy 
became  in  other  matters,  she  was  never  so  in  business.  Through 
hysteria  and  frantic  distress  of  mind,  her  shrewd  business  sense 
remained  alert  and  keen.  When,  upon  receipt  of  this  letter, 
Mr.  SpofFord  wrote  her  that  he  did  not  see  how  he  could  pay 
all  the  cost  of  printing,  advertising,  and  putting  the  second 
edition  upon  the  market,  and  still  pay  Mrs.  Eddy  her  bventy- 
five  cent,  royalty  upon  each  copy  sold,  she  replied  to  him  that 
her  work  upon  the  book  would  more  than  offset  his  invested 
capital : 

"  The  conditions  I  have  named  to  you,"  she  wrote,  "  I  think 
are  just.     I  give  three  years  and  more  to  offset  the  capital 

<!  Mr  Spofford  had  agreed  to  mark  the  typographical  and  other  errors  in 
two  copies  of  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health. 


218        LIFE  OF  lilARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

you  put  into  printing.   .   .   .   Now  dear  student  you  can  work 

as  3^our  teacher  has  done  before  you,  unselfishly,  as  you  wish  to 

and  gain  the  reward  of  such  labour ;  meantime  you  can  be  fitting 

yourself  for  a  higher  plane  of  action  and  its  reward." 

The  above  letters,  with  their  refrain  of  dread,  seem  anomalous 

from  one  who  had  discovered  the  secret  of  health  and  happiness. 

Although  she  absolutely  denied  the  influence  of  heredity,  Mrs. 

Eddy  told  her  students  that  she  had  a  congenital  susceptibility 

to  assume  the  mental  and  physical  ills  of  others.      She  felt  that 

such  a  state  was  incompatible  with  a  full  realisation  of  the 

principles  of  Christian  Science,  and  in  the  first  edition  of  Science 

and  Health  she  says  of  Christ : 

He  bore  their  sins  in  his  own  person;  that  is,  he  felt  the  suffering  their 
error  brought,  and  through  this  consciousness  destroyed  error.  Had  the 
Master  utterly  conquered  the  belief  of  Life  in  matter,  he  would  not  have 
felt  tlieir  infirmities;  he  had  not  yet  risen  to  this  his  final  demonstration.' 

Mrs.  Eddy  believed  that  she  herself  in  time  overcame  this 

weakness,  and  says  in  the  edition  of  1881 : 

In  years  past  we  suffered  greatly  for  the  sick  when  healing  them,  but 
even  that  is  all  over  now,  and  we  cannot  suffer  for  them.  But  when  we 
did  suffer  in  belief,  our  joj^  was  so  great  in  removing  others  sufferings 
that  we  bore  ours  cheerfully  and  willingly.  This  self-sacrificing  love  has 
never  left  us,  but  grows  stronger  every  year  of  our  earth  life.* 

Malicious  mesmerism,  an  important  addition  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
Science,  was  developed  gradually,  almost  by  chance.  Even  the 
most  haphazard  philosopher  is  likely  at  some  time  to  have  to 
account  for  the  element  of  evil,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  came  to  do  so 
purely  through  the  exigencies  of  circumstances,  and  was  quite 
unconscious  that  she  was  repeating  history.      She  added  to  her 

^  Srienrc  and   Health    (1875),   p.   \?>0. 
^Science  and  Health   (1881),  chapter  vi.  p.  38. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  219 

philosophy  from  time  to  time,  to  meet  this  or  that  emergency, 
very  much  as  a  householder  adds  an  ell  or  a  wing  to  accom- 
modate a  growing  family.  Christian  Science  as  it  stands  to- 
day is  a  kind  of  autobiography  in  cryptogram ;  its  form  was; 
determined  by  a  temperament,  and  it  retains  all  the  convolutions 
of  the  curiously  duplex  personality  about  which  it  grew. 

When  Richard  Kennedy  left  Mrs.  Eddy  in  1872,  she  was 
confronted  by  a  trying  situation.  It  was  inconceivable  to  her 
that,  having  broken  away,  he  should  not  try  to  harm  her,  and 
she  felt  that  his  very  popularity  put  her  in  the  wrong.  The 
means  with  which  Mrs.  Eddy  met  emergencies  were  often,  in- 
deed almost  always,  in  themselves  ill-adapted  to  her  ends ;  but 
she  had  a  truly  feminine  adroitness  in  making  the  wrong  tool 
serve.  When  she  thought  it  necessary  to  discredit  Mr.  Kennedy 
and  to  demonstrate  that  his  success  was  illegitimate,  she  caught 
up  the  first  weapon  at  hand,  which  happened  to  be  mesmerism. 
Mesmerism  loomed  large  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  vision  just  then,  for 
only  a  few  months  before  Wallace  W.  Wright  had  pubhshed 
a  number  of  articles  in  the  Lynn  Transcript,  asserting  that  the 
Science  taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy  was  identical  with  mesmerism. 
She  had  been  obliged  to  confess  that  there  was  an  outward 
similarity.  Here  was  the  solution,  ready  made.  When  Ken- 
nedy left  her,  he  left  true  Metaphysics  behind.  How,  then, 
could  he  still  succeed.''  By  mesmerism,  that  dangerous  counter- 
feit which  so  resembled  the  true  coin.  Mrs.  Eddy  thus  ex- 
plained her  discovery : 

Some  newspaper  articles  falsifying  the  science,  calling  it  mesmerism, 
etc.,  but  especially  intended,  as  the  writer  informed  us,  to  injure  its 
author,  precipitated  our  examination  of  mesmerism  in  contradistinction 
\o  our  metaphysical  science  of  healing  based  on  the  science  of  Life.    Filled 


220        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

with  revenge  and  evil  passiotis,  the  mal-practitioner  can  only  depend  on 
manipulation,  and  rubs  the  heads  of  patients  years  together,  fairly  in- 
corporating their  minds  through  this  process,  which  claims  less  respect 
tiie  more  we  understand  it,  and  learn  its  cause.  Through  the  control  this 
gives  the  practitioner  over  patients,  he  readily  reaches  the  mind  of  the 
community  to  injure  another  or  promote  liimself,  but  none  can  track  his 
foul   course.'' 

Without  a  doubt  Mrs.  Eddy  had  speculated  somewhat  upon 
the  possibility  of  a  malignant  use  of  mind  power  before  Ken- 
nedy's separation  from  her,  but  she  never  got  very  far  with 
abstractions  until  she  had  a  human  peg  to  hang  them  on.  Her 
indignation  against  Kennedy  gave  her  reflections  upon  the 
subject  of  malignant  mind  power  a  vigorous  impetus,  and  she 
fell  to  work  to  develop  the  converse  of  her  original  proposition 
with  almost  as  much  fervour  and  industry  as  she  had  bestowed 
upon  the  proposition  itself.  She  thus  explained  her  discovery 
of  Kennedy's  "  malpractice  " : 

Some  years  ago,  the  history  of  one  of  our "  young  students,  as  known  . 
to  us  and  many  others,  diverged  into  a  dark  channel  of  its  own,  whereby 
the  unwise  young  man  reversed  our  metaphysical  method  of  healing,  and 
subverted  his  mental  power  apparently  for  the  purposes  of  tyranny 
peculiar  to  the  individual.  A  stolid  moral  sense,  great  want  of  spiritual 
sentiment,  restless  ambition,  and  envy,  embedded  in  the  soil  of  this  student's 
nature,  metaphysics  brought  to  the  surface,  and  he  refused  to  give  them 
up,  choosing  darkness  rather  than  liglit.  His  motives  moved  in  one  groove, 
the  desire  to  subjugate;  a  despotic  will  choked  his  humanity.  Carefully 
veiling  his  character,  through  unsurpassed  secretiveness,  he  wore  the  mask 
of  innocence  and  youth.  But  he  was  young  only  in  years;  a  marvelous 
plotter,  dark  and  designing,  he  was  constantly  surprising  us,  and  we  half 
shut  our  eyes  to  avoid  the  pain  of  discovery,  while  we  struggled  with  the 
gigantic  evil  of  his  character,  but  failed  to  destroy  it.  .  .  .  The  second 
j-ear  of  his  practice,  when  we  discovered  he  was  malpractising,  and  told 
him  so,  he  avowed  his  intention  to  do  whatever  he  chose  with  his  mental 
power,   spurning   a   Christian   life,   and   exulting  in   the   absence   of  moral 


'  f^cicnce  and  Health    (1875),  p.   375. 

"TliroiiKhont  this  chapter  on  D(>mnnolosrv  Mrs.  Eddy  usos  the  editorial 
In  referring  to  herself.     Mr.  Eddy  is  designated  as  "bur  husband." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  221 

restraint.  The  sick  clung  to  him  when  he  was  doing  them  no  good,  and 
he  made  friends  and  followers  with  surprising  rapiditj%  but  retained  them 
only  so  long  as  his  mesmeric  influence  was  kept  up  and  his  true  character 
unseen.  The  habit  of  his  misapplication  of  mental  power  grew  on  him 
until  it  became  a  secret  passion  of  his  to  produce  a  state  of  mind  de- 
structive to  health,  happiness,  or  morals.  .  .  .  His  mental  malpractice 
has  made  him  a  moral  leper  that  would  be  shunned  as  the  most  prolific 
cause  of  sickness  and  sin  did  the  sick  understand  the  cause  of  their 
relapses  and  protracted  treatment,  the  husband  the  loss  of  his  wife,  and 
the  mother  the  death  of  her  child,  etc." 

Mrs.  Eddy  had  always  been  able  to  wring  highly-coloured 
experiences  from  the  most  unpromising  material,  and  she  never  V 
accomplished  a  more  astonishing  feat  than  when  she  managed 
to  see  a  melodramatic  villain  in  Richard  Kennedy.  Her  hatred 
of  Kennedy  was  one  of  the  strongest  emotions  she  had  ever  felt, 
really  a  tragic  passion  in  its  way,  and  since  the  cheerful,  ener- 
getic boy  who  had  inspired  it  was  in  no  way  an  adequate 
object,  she  fell  to  and  made  a  Kennedy  of  her  own.  She  fash- 
ioned this  hypothetical  Kennedy  bit  by  bit,  believing  in  him 
more  and  more  as  she  put  him  together.  She  gave  him  one 
grisly  attribute  after  another,  and  the  more  terrible  she  made 
her  image,  the  more  she  believed  in  it  and  hated  and  feared 
it ;  and  the  more  she  hated  and  feared  it,  the  more  furiously  she 
wrought  upon  it,  until  finally  her  creation,  a  definite  shape  of 
fear  and  hatred,  stood  by  her  day  and  night  to  harry  and  tor- 
ment her. 

Without  Malicious  Mesmerism  as  his  cardinal  attribute,  the 
new  and  terrible  Kennedy  could  never  have  been  made.  It  was 
like  the  tragic  mask  which  presented  to  an  Athenian  audience 
an  aspect  of  horror  such  as  no  merely  human  face  could  wear. 
By  a  touch  really  worthy  of  an  artist  Mrs.  Eddy  made  the 


^^  Science  and  Health  (1881),  chapter  vi,  p.  2. 


222        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

boy's  youth,  agreeable  manner,  and  even  his  fresh  colour  con- 
ducive to  a  sinister  effect.  Given  such  a  blithe  and  genial 
figure,  and  suppose  in  him  a  power  over  the  health  and  emo- 
tions of  other  people,  and  a  morbid  passion  for  using  it  to  the 
most  atrocious  ends,  and  you  have  indeed  the  young  Nero, 
which  title  jNIrs.  Eddy  so  often  applied  to  Kennedy. 

Mrs.  Eddy  feared  this  imaginary  Kennedy  as  only  things 
born  of  the  imagination  can  be  feared,  and  dilated  upon  his 
corrupt  nature  and  terrible  power  until  her  new  students,  when 
they  met  the  actual,  unconscious  Kennedy  upon  the  street,  shud- 
dered and  hurried  away.  During  the  sleepless  nights  which 
sometimes  followed  an  outburst  of  her  hatred,  Mrs.  Eddy  would 
pace  the  floor,  exclaiming  to  her  sympathetic  students :  "  Oh, 
why  does  not  some  one  kill  him.?     Why  does  he  not  die.'' '' 

She  afterward  wrote  of  him : 

Among  our  very  first  students  was  the  mesmerist  aforesaid,  who  has 
followed  the  cause  of  metaphysical  healing  as  a  hound  follows  his  prey, 
to  hunt  down  every  ^jroniising  student  if  he  cannot  place  them  in  his  track 
and  on  his  pursuit.  Never  but  one  of  our  students  was  a  voluntary  mal- 
practitioner;  he  has  made  many  others.  .  .  .  This  malpractitioner  tried 
his  best  to  break  down  our  health  before  we  learned  the  cause  of  our 
suflFerings.  It  was  difficult  for  us  to  credit  the  facts  of  his  malice  or  to 
admit  they  lie  within   the  pale  of  mortal   thought." 

To  Richard  Kennedy  and  his  mesmeric  power  Mrs.  Eddy 
began  to  attribute,  not  only  her  illnesses,  but  all  her  vexations 
and  misfortunes;  any  lack  of  success  in  her  ventures,  any 
difficulties  with  her  students. 

In  the  famous  chapter  on  Demonology  she  enumerates  a  long 
list  of  friends  whose  warm  regard  for  her  was  destroyed  by 
Kennedy's   mesmeric   power.     "  Our  lives,"   she   writes,   "  have 
"-S'cic/icc  and  Health   (1881),  chapter  vi,  p.  34. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  223 

since  floated  apart  down  the  river  of  years."     She  charges  this 
"  mental  assassin  "  with  even  darker  crimes. 

The  husband  of  a  lady  who  was  the  patient  of  this  malpractitioner 
poured  out  his  grief  to  us  and  said :  "  Dr.  K —  has  destroyed  the  hajiiiiness 
of  my  home,  ruined  my  wife,  etc.";  and  after  that,  he  finished  with  a  double 
crime  by  destroying  the  health  of  that  wronged  husband  so  that  he  died. 
We  say  that  he  did  these  things  because  we  have  as  much  evidence  of  it 
as  ever  we  had  of  the  existence  of  any  sin.  The  symptoms  and  circumstances 
of  tlie  cases,  and  the  diagnosis  of  their  diseases,  proved  the  unmistakable 
fact.  His  career  of  crime  surj^asses  anything  tliat  minds  in  general  can 
accept  at  this  period.  We  advised  him  to  marry  a  young  lady  whose 
affection  he  had  won,  but  he  refused;  subsequently  she  was  wedded  to 
a  nice  young  man,  and  then  lie  alienated  her  affections  from  her  husband." 

The  real  Richard  Kennedy  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
smiling  Elagabalus  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  imagination.  While  she 
was  perfecting  her  creation,  the  flesh-and-blood  Kennedy  was 
establishing  an  enviable  record  for  uprightness,  kindliness,  and 
purity  of  character.  In  1876  he  became  prosperous  enough 
to  move  his  office  to  Boston.  There  he  was,  as  he  had  been  in 
Lynn,  an  active  agent  for  good.  He  had  made  many  friends 
and  had  built  up  a  good  practice,  when,  in  1881,  in  the  third 
edition  of  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  broke  forth  into  that 
tirade  of  invective  which  she  called  "  Demonology  " — the  flower 
of  nine  years  of  torturing  hatred.  Kennedy's  old  friends  in 
Lynn  were  stirred  to  mirth  rather  than  indignation  when  a 
passage  like  the  following  was  applied  to  a  man  whose  amiability 
was  locally  proverbial: 

The  Nero  of  to-day,  regaling  himself  through  a  mental  method  with 
the  tortures  of  individuals,  is  repeating  history,  and  will  fall  upon  his 
own  sword,  and  it  shall  pierce  him  through.  Let  him  remember  this  when, 
in   the  dark  recesses  of  thouglit,  he  is  robbing,  committing  adultery,  and 


^^  Science  and  Health  (1881),  chapter  vi,  p.  6. 


2U        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

killing;  when  he  is  attempting  to  turn  friend  away  from  friend,  ruthlessly 
stabbing  the  quivering  heart;  when  he  is  clipping  the  thread  of  life, 
and  giving  to  the  grave  youth  and  its  rainbow  hues;  when  he  is  turning 
back  the  reviving  suflFerer  to  her  bed  of  pain,  clouding  her  first  morning 
after  jears  of  night;  and  the  Nemesis  of  that  hour  shall  point  to  the 
tyrant's  fate,  who  falls  at  length  upon  the  sword  of  justice." 

In  the  beginning,  then,  Malicious  Mesmerism  was  advanced 
merely  as  a  personal  attribute  of  Richard  Kennedy,  and  was  a 
means  by  which  Mrs.  Eddy  sought  to  justify  her  hatred.  In 
the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  though  she  usually  links 
it  with  some  reference  to  Kennedy,  Mrs.  Eddy  occasionally 
refers  to  mesmerism  as  an  abstract  thing,  apart  from  any 
personality. 

In  coming  years  the  person  or  mind  that  hates  his  neighbour,  will  have 
no  need  to  traverse  his  fields,  to  destroy  his  tlocks  and  herds,  and  spoil 
his  \'ines;  or  to  enter  his  house  to  demoralise  his  household;  for  the 
evil  mind  will  do  this  through  mesmerism;  and  not  in  propria  personw 
be  seen  committing  the  deed.  Unless  this  terrible  hour  be  met  and  re- 
strained by  Science,  mesmerism,  that  scourge  of  man,  will  leave  nothing 
sacred  when  mind  begins  to  act  imder  direction  of  conscious  power. 

The  sign  of  the  mesmerist,  however,  the  plague  spot  which 
he  could  not  conceal,  was  "  Manipulation  " — ^the  method  which 
she  had  taught  Kennedy  and  afterward  repudiated.  "  Sooner 
suffer  a  doctor  infected  with  smallpox  to  be  about  you,"  she 
cries,  "  than  come  under  the  treatment  of  one  who  manipulates 
his  patients'  heads."  And  again,  "  the  malpractitioner  can 
depend  only  on  manipulation."  From  1872  to  1877  Mrs.  Eddy 
counted  many  victims  of  Kennedy's  mesmeric  power,  but  charged 
no  other  student  with  consciously  and  maliciously  practising 
mesmerism.  In  1877,  however,  an  open  rapture  occurred  be- 
tween Mrs.  Eddy  and  Daniel  SpofFord.  Now,  Mr.  Spofford 
"Science  and  Health  (1881),  chapter  vi,  p.  38. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  225 

was,  like  Kennedy,  a  man  with  a  personal  following,  and  his 
secession  would  mean  that  of  his  party.  Though  she  never 
hated  SpofFord  as  bitterly  as  she  hated  Kennedy,  he  was  the 
second  of  her  seceding  students  who  was  deemed  important 
enough  to  merit  the  charge  of  mesmerism — ^a  charge  which 
conferred  a  certain  distinction,  as  only  those  who  had  stood  in 
high  places  ever  incurred  it. 

But  in  her  book,  published  only  two  years  before,  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  clearly  and  repeatedly  stated  that  the  mesmerist  could 
"  depend  only  on  manipidation,"  and  could  always  be  detected 
thereby.  Now  Mr.  Spoiford  did  not  manipulate — ^he  had  been 
so  soundly  taught  that  he  would  sooner  have  put  his  hands 
into  the  fire.  Accordingly,  Mrs.  Eddy  got  out  a  postscript  to 
Science  and  Health.  The  second  edition,  which  Mr.  SpofFord 
had  laboured  upon  and  helped  to  prepare,  was  hastily  revised 
and  converted  into  a  running  attack  upon  him,  hurried  to  press, 
labeled  Volume  II.,  and  sent  panting  after  Science  and  Health, 
which  was  not  labeled  Volume  I.,  and  which  had  already  been 
in  the  world  three  years.  This  odd  little  brown  book,  with 
the  ark  and  troubled  waves  on  the  cover,  is  made  up  of  a 
few  chapters  snatched  from  the  1875  edition,  interlarded 
with  vigorous  rhetoric  such  as  the  following  apostrophe  to 
SpofFord : 

Behold!  thou  criminal  mental  marauder,  that  would  blot  out  the 
sunshine  of  earth,  that  would  sever  friends,  destroy  virtue,  put  out  Truth, 
and  murder  in  secret  the  innocent  befouling  thy  track  with  the  trophies 
of  thy  guilt,— I  say.  Behold  the  "cloud,  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand," 
already  rising  in  the  horizon  of  Truth,  to  pour  down  upon  thy  guilty 
head  the  hailstones  of  doom. 

The  purpose  of  this  breathless  little  courier — a  book  of  167 


226        LIFE  OF  jVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

pages — in  looks  very  unlike  the  sombre  480-page  volume  which 
had  preceded  it — was  to  announce  that  mesmerism  could  be 
practised  without  manipulation — indeed,  that  the  practice  was 
more  pernicious  without  a  sign  than  with  it.  Mrs.  Eddy  thus 
explained  her  new  light  upon  the  subject: 

Mesmerism  is  practised  through  manipulation — and  without  it.  And  we 
have  learned,  by  new  observation,  the  fool  who  saith  "  There  is  no  God " 
attempts  more  evil  without  a  sign  than  with  it.  Since  "  Science  and 
Health "  first  went  to  press,  we  have  observed  the  crimes  of  another 
mesmeric  outlaw,  in  a  variety  of  ways,  who  does  not  as  a  common  thing 
manipulate,  in  cases  where  he  suUenly  attempted  to  avenge  himself  of 
certain  individuals,  etc.  But  we  had  not  before  witnessed  the  mal- 
practitioner's  fable  without  manipulation,  and  supposed  it  was  not  done 
without  it;  but  have  learned  it  is  the  addenda  to  what  we  have  described 
in  a  previous  edition,  but   without   manipulating  the  head.*" 

Malicious  Mesmerism,  or  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,  first 
conceived  as  a  personal  attribute  of  Richard  Kennedy,  was 
six  years  later  stretched  to  accommodate  Daniel  SpofFord.  By 
1881,  when  the  third  edition  of  Science  and  Health  appeared, 
a  personal  animosity  had  fairly  developed  into  a  doctrine,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  well  on  the  way  toward  admitting  a  general 
principle  of  evil — a  thing  she  certainly  never  meant  to  admit. 
She  had  decided  that  mesmerism  was  not  merely  a  trick  em- 
ployed in  practice,  but  a  malignant  attitude  of  mind,  and  that  a 
person  evilly  disposed,  by  merely  wishing  his  neighbour  harm, 
could  bring  it  to  him — unless  the  object  of  his  malice  were  wise 
in  Metaphysics  and  could  treat  against  this  evil  mind-power. 
Unless  a  man  wore  thus  protected  by  Christian  Science,  his 
enemy  might,  through  Mesmerism  or  Mortal  Mind,  bring  upon 
him  any  kind  of  misfortune;  might  ruin  his  business,  cause  a 

^BciencG  and  Health  (1878),  p.  136. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  227 

rash  to  break  out  upon  his  face,  vex  his  body  with  grievous 
humours,  cause  his  cliildren  to  hate  him  and  his  wife  to  become 
unfaithful. 

Having  instanced  a  few  cases  of  the  evil  workings  of  the  hidden  agency 
in  our  midst,  our  readers  may  feel  an  interest  to  learn  somewhat  of  the 
indications  of  this  mental  malpractice  of  demonology.  It  has  no  outward 
signs,  such  as  ordinarily  indicate  mesmerism,  and  its  effects  are  far  more 
subtle  because  of  this.  Its  tendency  is  to  sour  the  disposition,  to  occasion 
great  fear  of  disease,  dread,  and  discouragement,  to  cause  a  relapse  of 
former  diseases,  to  produce  new  ones,  to  create  dislikes  or  indifference  to 
friends,  to  produce  sufferings  in  the  head,  in  fine,  every  evil  that  demon- 
ology includes  and  that  metaphysics  destroys.  If  it  be  students  of  ours 
whom  he  attacks,  the  malpractitioner  and  aforesaid  mesmerist  tries  to 
produce  in  their  minds  a  hatred  towards  us,  even  as  the  assassin  puts 
out  the  light  before  committing  his  deed.  He  knows  this  error  would 
injure  the  student,  impede  his  progress,  and  produce  the  results  of  error 
on  health  and  morals,  and  he  does  it  as  much  for  that  effect  on  him  as 
to  injure  us.^® 

The  question  is  often  asked,  "  How  did  Mrs.  Eddy  justify 
this  evil  power  with  her  scheme  of  metaphysics.?  If  God  is  all 
and  all  is  God,  where  does  Malicious  Mesmerism  come  in.''  " 
The  answer  is  evident;  when  the  original  Science  of  Man,  as 
she  had  learned  it  from  Quimby,  and  as  she  at  first  taught  it, 
no  longer  met  the  needs  of  her  own  nature,  Mrs.  Eddy  simply 
went  ahead  and  added  to  her  religion  out  of  the  exuberance 
of  her  feelings,  leaving  justification  to  the  commentators — 
and  she  has  rapped  them  soundly  whenever  they  have  attempted 
it. 

No  philosophy  which  endeavours  to  reduce  the  universe  to  one 
element,  and  to  find  the  world  a  unit,  can  admit  the  existence 
of  evil  unless  it  admits  it  as  a  legitimate  and  necessary  part 
of  the  whole.     But  the  very  keystone  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Science 


^^  Science  ana  Health  (1881),  chapter  vl,  p.  35. 


228        LIFE  OF  jVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

is  that  evil  is  not  only  unnecessary  but  unreal.  Admitting  evil 
as  a  legitimate  part  of  the  whole  would  be  to  deny  that  the 
whole  was  good  and  was  God.  Admitting  evil  in  opposition 
to  good  would  be  to  deny  that  good  and  God  were  the  whole. 
Whenever  a  train  of  reasoning  seemed  to  be  leading  to  the 
wrong  place,  Mrs.  Eddy  could  always  drop  a  stitch  and  begin 
a  new  pattern  on  the  other  side.  Since  neither  the  allness 
of  God  nor  the  Godhood  of  all  could  explain  the  injuries  and 
persecutions  which  she  felt  were  inflicted  upon  her,  she  fell  back 
upon  Mortal  Mind. 

"  As  used  in  Christian  Science,"  she  says,  "  animal  magnet- 
ism is  the  specific  term  for  Error,  or  Mortal  Mind." 

Mortal  Mind  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  explanation  of  the  seeming  exist- 
ence of  evil  in  the  world."  Whatever  seems  to  be  harmful, — • 
sin,  sickness,  earthquakes,  convulsions  of  the  elements, — are 
due  to  the  influence  of  Mortal  Mind.  Now,  Mortal  Mind,  she 
says,  has  no  real  existence  except  as  a  harmful  tradition ;  she 
affirms  that  its  very  name  is  a  fallacy,  and  she  admits  it  merely 
for  the  sake  of  argument.  Hence,  though^  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  evil,  there  is  an  accumulated  belief  in  evil,  a  tradition 
which  overshadows  us,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  like  the  deadly 
Upas  tree."  The  belief  in  evil,  then,  is  the  only  evil  that 
exists.  This  belief  is  Mortal  Mind,  and  Mortal  Mind  is  Mes- 
merism. 


"  Mortal  mind  includes  all  evil,  disease,  and  death  ;  also,  all  beliefs  relative 
to  the  so-called  material  laws,  and  all  material  objects,  and  the  law  of  sin 
and  death. 

The  Scripture  says,  "The  carnal  mind  (in  other  words  mortal  mind>  is 
enmity  against  God :  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed 
can  be.''  Mortal  mind  is  an  Illusion  :  as  much  in  our  waking  moments  as  in 
the  dreams  of  sleep.  The  belief  that  Intelligence,  Truth,  and  Love,  are  in 
matter  and  separate  from  God,  Is  an  error ;  for  there  is  no  Intelligent  evil, 
and  no  power  besides  God,  Good.  God  would  not  be  omnipotent  if  there  were 
In  reality  another  mind  creating  or  governing  man  or  the  universe.  Miscel- 
laneous  \yriiin(js,  p.   36,  Sixty-sixth   Edition    (1883-1896). 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  229 

Mrs.  Eddy  says : 

The  origin  of  evil  is  the  problem  of  ages.  It  confronts  each  generation 
anew.  It  confronts  Christian  Science.  The  question  is  often  asked,  i-f 
God  created  only  the  good,  whence  comes  the  evil? 

To  this  question  Christian  Science  replies:  Evil  never  did  exist  as  an 
entity.  It  is  but  a  belief  that  there  is  an  opposite  Intelligence  to  God. 
This  belief  is  a  species  of  idolatry,  and  is  not  more  true  or  real  than 
that  an  image  graven  on  wood  or  stone  is  God." 

But  concerning  the  origin  of  the  belief  in  evil,  Mrs.  Eddy 
is  silent;  and  certainly  with  the  belief  we  are  immediately 
concerned,  since  that  and  that  alone  "brought  death  into  the 
world,  and  all  our  Avoe."  The  cause  of  this  knot  or  tangle  in 
the  human  consciousness,  however,  remains  unexplained  down 
to  the  very  last  page  of  the  very  last  edition  of  Science  and 
Health. 

The  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin,  for  some  years  Mrs.  Eddy's 
literary  adviser,  said  that  "  Mesmerism  was  her  Devil,"  and 
it  does  seem  that  she  has  routed  Satan  from  pillar  to  post 
only  to  be  confronted  by  him  at  last.  By  designating  evil  as 
Mortal  Mind,  and  declaring  that  it  was  non-existent,  Mrs. 
Eddy  evidently  believed  herself  well  rid  of  it ;  and  she  was 
bewildered  to  find  that  she  was  still  afraid  of  it,  and  that  it 
could  do  her  harm.  Unwittingly  she  was  demonstrating  Kant's 
proposition  that  "  a  dream  which  we  all  dream  together,  and 
which  we  all  must  dream,  is  not  a  dream,  but  a  reality." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  method  of  protecting  herself  against  Malicious 
Mesmerism — the  "  adverse  treatment  "  which  later  became  such 
a  prolific  source  of  scandal  in  the  Christian  Science  Church — 
was  first  practised  by  her  students  about  1875.  By  now  mes- 
merism   had    become    an    indispensable    household    convenience. 

^«  Miscellaneous  Writings   (1806)    p.  346. 


230        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

After  she  moved  into  her  Broad  Street  house,  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
a  long  succession  of  tenants  and  housekeepers,  all  of  whom 
she  at  first  found  satisfactory,  but  against  whom  she  soon  had 
a  grievance.  She  accused  nearly  all  of  them  of  stealing;  of 
taking  her  coal,  her  blankets,  her  feather  pillows,  her  silver 
spoons,  and  especially  of  taking  her  knives  and  forks,  which 
kept  magically  disappearing  like  the  food  to  which  the  clown 
sits  down  in  the  pantomime.  It  seemed  as  if  the  only  way 
in  which  she  could  keep  these  knives  and  forks  at  all  was  actually 
to  hold  them  in  her  hands.  All  this  trouble  she  bitterly  ac- 
credited to  Kennedy.  People  came  into  her  house  well  disposed 
toward  her,  she  said ;  he  set  his  mind  to  work  upon  their  minds, 
and  in  a  few  days  she  could  see  the  result.  They  avoided  her, 
looked  at  her  doubtfully,  and  her  spoons  and  pillows  began 
playing  hide  and  seek  again. 

Mrs.  Eddy  talked  of  Kennedy  continually,  and  often  in 
her  lectures  she  wandered  away  from  her  subject,  forgot  that 
her  students  were  there  to  be  instructed  in  the  power  of  universal 
love,  and  would  devote  half  the  lesson  hour  to  bitter  invective 
against  Kennedy  and  his  treachery.  This,  of  course,  made  an 
unfavourable  impression  upon  new  students,  and  Mrs.  Eddy's 
advisers,  Mr.  Spofford,  Mrs.  Rice,  and  Miss  Rawson,  besought 
her  to  control  her  feeling  and  not  to  darken  the  doctrine  of 
Divine  love  by  the  upbraidings  of  hatred.  When  thus  advised 
she  would  tell  her  students  how  she  had  withdrawn  herself  from 
the  world  and  laboured  night  and  day  through  weary  years, 
"  standing  alone  with  God,"  that  she  might  give  this  great 
truth  to  men;  and  how  Kennedy  had  perverted  it  and  put  it 
to  evil  uses.     Not  only  did  he  rob  her  of  her  students  and  set 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  231 

the  minds  of  men  against  her,  she  declared,  but  he  pursued  her 
mind  "  as  a  hound  pursues  its  prey,"  causing  her  torment, 
sleeplessness,  and  unrest.  She  explained  that  even  his  cures 
were  made  at  her  expense ;  that  when  standing  beside  his  patients 
and  "  rubbing  their  heads  years  together,"  he  took  up  Mrs, 
Eddy  in  thought,  united  her  mentally  with  the  sick,  and  cured 
them  by  throwing  the  burden  of  their  disease  upon  her.  Thus 
weighed  down  by  the  ills  of  his  patients,  she  could  go  no  further. 
Unless  some  means  were  found  of  protecting  her  against  Ken- 
nedy, she  must  sink  under  his  persecution  and  her  mission  be 
unfulfilled.  In  this  extremity  she  implored  her  students  to 
save  her  by  treating  against  Kennedy  and  his  power. 

Those  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  who  did  not  know  Mr.  Ken- 
nedy believed  that  their  teacher  was  suffering  acutely  at  his 
hands.  She  so  wrought  upon  their  sympathies  that  they  actu- 
ally consented  to  meet  at  her  house  and  take  part  in  this  treat- 
ment, which  they  believed  would  injure  the  young  man.  One 
of  the  faithful  students  present  in  the  circle  would  say  to  the 
others : 

Now  all  of  you  unite  yourselves  in  thought  on  Kennedy;  that  he  cannot 
heal  the  sick,  that  he  must  leave  oflF  calling  on  Mrs.  Glover  mentally, 
that  he  shall  be  driven  out  of  practice  and  leave  the  town,  etc. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  never  present  at  these  sessions,  and  her 
students  soon  discontinued  them.  One  of  the  number,  who  used 
to  meet  with  the  others  to  treat  against  Kennedy,  explains  that 
he  was  unwilling  to  go  on  with  it  because  he  discovered  that 
the  more  he  wished  evil  to  Kennedy,  the  more  he  felt  the  pres- 
ence of  evil  within  himself.  He  writes  that  "  while  thoughts 
born  of  love  or  its  attributes  are  unlimited  in  their  power  to 


232        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

help  both  their  author  and  their  object,  thoughts  born  of 
malice  influence  only  those  who  originate  them." 

Although  no  open  rupture  occurred  between  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Daniel  SpofFord  until  the  summer  of  1877,  by  the  spring  of 
1877  Mrs.  Eddy's  feeling  for  him  had  begun  to  cool.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  she  had  turned  a  number  of  her  students 
over  to  Mr.  SpofFord  for  instruction  in  the  Interpretation  of 
the  Scriptures.  As  a  teacher,  Mr.  SpoiFord  proved  so  popular 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  repented  the  authority  she  had  given  him.  His 
success  in  practice  also  made  her  restive, — doubtless  one  of  the 
causes  which  led  her  to  insist  upon  his  turning  his  practice 
over  to  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy  and  devoting  his  time  to  pushing  the 
sale  of  her  book.  It  would  be  scarcely  fair  to  draw  the  con- 
clusion that  Mrs.  Eddy  resented  the  success  of  her  students 
in  itself,  but  she  certainly  looked  upon  it  with  apprehension 
if  the  student  showed  any  inclination  to  adopt  methods  of  his 
own  or  to  think  for  himself.  Mrs.  Eddy  required  of  her  stu- 
dents absolute  and  unquestioning  conformity  to  her  washes ; 
any  other  attitude  of  mind  she  regarded  as  dangerous.  She 
often  told  Mr.  SpofFord  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  devo- 
tion to  the  principle  of  revealed  truth  which  did  not  include 
devotion  to  the  revelator.  "  I  am  Wisdom,  and  this  revelation 
is  mine,"  she  would  declare  when  a  student  questioned  her 
decision. 

In  July,  1877,  Mr.  SpofFord  closed  out  the  stock  of  Science 
and  Health,  which  he  had  received  from  George  H.  Barry  and 
Elizabeth  M.  Newhall,  the  students  who  had  furnished  the 
money  to  publish  the  book.  Mr.  SpofFord  paid  over  the  money 
which  he  had  received  for  the  books,  something  over  six  hundred 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  ^33 

dollars,  to  these  two  students,  and  although  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
agreed  to  ask  for  no  royalty  upon  the  first  edition,  she  was 
exceedingly  indignant  that  the  money  had  not  been  paid  to  her. 
She  declared  that  Mr.  Barry  and  Miss  Newhall  had  advanced 
the  money  to  further  the  cause,  and  that  whatever  was  realised 
from  the  sale  of  the  first  edition  should  have  gone  toward 
getting  out  a  second.  Mr.  Spofford  told  her  that  if  Mr. 
Barry  and  Miss  Newhall  wished  to  put  the  money  into  a  second 
edition,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  their  doing  so,  but  that 
he  had  received  from  them  a  number  of  books  which  were  their 
property,  and  he  was  in  duty  bound  to  turn  over  to  them  any 
money  received  for  the  same.  Mr.  Barry  and  Miss  Newhall 
lost  over  fifteen  hundred  dollars  on  the  edition,  and  Mr. 
Spofford  paid  out  five  hundred  dollars  of  his  own  money  for 
advertising  and  personal  expenses,  besides  giving  his  time 
for  several  months.  Mrs.  Eddy  made  no  effort  to  reimburse 
them. 

The  estrangement  thus  brought  about  between  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Mr.  Spofford  continued  until,  in  January,  1878,  Mr.  Spofford 
was  expelled  from  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association  and 
received  the  following  notice: 

Dr.  D.  H.  Spofford  of  Newburyport  has  been  expelled  from  the 
Association  of  Christian  Scientists  for  immorality  and  as  unworthy  to  be 
a   member. 

Lynn,  Jan.  19th,  1878. 

Secretary  of  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association,  Mrs.  H.  N.  Kingsbury. 

A  notice  also  appeared  in  the  Newburyport  Herald,  stating 
that  Daniel  H.  Spofford  had  been  expelled  for  alleged  immo- 
rality from  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association  of  Lynn.  Mr. 
Spofford    brought    no    action    against    the   Association,    as    he 


£54        LIFE  OF  IVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

thought  the  cliarge  would  be  considered  absurd  and  could  do 
him  no  harm. 

"  Immorality  "  was  a  favourite  charge  of  Mrs.  Eddy's ;  she 
insisted  it  meant  that  a  student  had  been  guilty  of  disloyalty 
to  Christian  Science.  The  very  special  and  wholly  unauthor- 
ised meanings  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had  given  to  many  common 
words  in  writing  Science  and  Health  doubtless  confirmed  her 
in  the  habit  of  empirical  diction.  An  amusing  instance  of  this 
occurred  years  afterward,  when  Mrs.  Eddy  quarrelled  with  a 
woman  prominent  in  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston,  and  de- 
clared that  she  was  an  adulteress.  When  the  frantic  woman 
appealed  to  her  to  know  what  in  Heaven's  name  she  meant, 
'll  j  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  gravely,  "  You  have  adulterated  the  Truth ; 
what  are  you,  then,  but  an  adulteress.''  " 

The  test  of  loyalty  in  a  disciple  was  obedience.  "  Whosoever 
is  not  for  me  is  against  me,"  Mrs.  Eddy  declared  in  an  angry 
interview  with  Mr.  Spofford.  If  a  student  were  "  against " 
her,  there  could  be  but  one  cause  for  his  hardening  of  heart — 
Richard  Kennedy  and  Malicious  Mesmerism.  Mr.  Spofford  was 
amazed,  therefore,  in  the  spring  of  1878,  to  find  that  a  bill 
had  been  filed  before  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  at  Salem, 
charging  him  with  practising  witchcraft  upon  one  of  IMrs. 
Eddy's  former  students,  Lucretia  L.  S.  Brown  of  Ipswich. 

Lucretia  Brown  was  a  spinster  about  fifty  years  of  age, 
who  lived  with  her  mother  and  sister  in  one  of  the  oldest  houses 
in  Ipswich,  facing  upon  School-house  Green.  When  she  was  a 
child.  Miss  Brown  had  a  fall  which  injured  her  spine,  and  she 
was  an  invalid  for  the  greater  part  of  her  life.  Although  not 
absolutely  bedridden,   she  had  often   to  keep   to   her  bed   for 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  ^35 

weeks  together,  and  seldom  walked  further  than  the  church. 
She  conducted  a  crocheting  agency,  taking  orders  for  city 
dealers,  and  giving  out  piece-work  to  women  in  the  village  who 
wished  to  earn  a  little  pin-money.  Miss  Lucretia  was  noted 
for  her  system  and  her  neatness.  On  certain  days  of  the  week 
she  gave  out  this  crochet  work  at  exactly  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  and  whoever  arrived  a  few  minutes  early  had  to 
await  the  stroke  of  the  clock,  as  Miss  Brown  was  not  visible 
until  then.  The  women  who  came  for  work  gathered  in  the 
sitting-room,  and  one  by  one  they  were  admitted  to  Miss  Lu- 
cretia's  sleeping  chamber,  where  she  received  them  in  a  bed 
incredibly  white  and  smooth.  They  used  to  wonder  how  Miss 
Lucretia  could  lie  under  a  coverlid  absolutely  wrinkleless,  and 
how  she  could  handle  her  worsted  and  give  all  her  directions 
without  rumpling  the  smoothness  of  the  turned-back  sheet,  or 
marring  the  geometrical  outline  of  her  pillow.  As  the  candi- 
date retired  from  Miss  Brown's  presence,  her  bundle  of  yam 
was  sharply  eyed  by  the  other  women  who  waited  in  the  sitting- 
room,  as  there  was  a  rumour  that  Miss  Lucretia  gave  more 
work  to  her  favourites  than  to  others,  and  that  they  rolled 
their  worsted  up  tightly  to  conceal  the  evidence  of  her  partiality. 
In  the  matter  of  good  housewifery,  the  three  Brown  ladies 
were  triumphant  and  invincible.  They  carried  their  daintiness 
even  into  their  diet,  regarding  anything  heavier  than 
the  most  ethereal  food  as  somewhat  too  virile  and  indelicate 
for  their  spinster  household.  The  assertion  was  once  made  that 
Essex  was  the  cleanest  county  in  Massachusetts,  and  Ipswich 
was  the  cleanest  town  in  Essex,  and  the  Browns  were  the  cleanest 
people   in   Ipswich.     Even   when   Miss  Lucretia   was   suffering 


236        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

from  her  worst  attacks  and  was  supposed  to  be  helpless  in 
bed,  she  was  occasionally  discovered  late  at  night,  slipping  about 
the  house  and  "  tidying  up  "  under  cover  of  darkness. 

Before  Miss  Lucretia  knew  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Miss  Rawson, 
she  was  a  Congregationalist,  but  after  she  was  healed  by 
Christian  Science  she  withdrew  from  her  old  church.  Her  cure 
was  much  talked  about.  After  she  was  treated  by  Miss  Rawson, 
she  was  able  to  be  up  and  about  the  house  all  day  and  to  walk 
a  distance  of  tv,o  or  three  miles,  whereas  before  she  had  made 
much  ado  to  call  upon  a  neighbour  at  the  other  end  of  the 
Green.  After  her  healing  she  made  some  effort  to  practise  upon 
other  people,  but  Ipswich  folk  were  slow  to  quit  their  family 
doctors  in  favour  of  the  new  method. 

Miss  Brown,  however,  remained  a  devout  Scientist  until  her 
death  in  1883,  and  up  to  that  time  occasionally  took  a  case. 
The  story  goes  that  she  got  the  cold  she  died  of  by  airing  the 
house  too  thoroughly  after  having  treated  one  of  her  patients. 
Fifty  years  of  frantic  cleanliness  v/ere  not  to  be  overcome  in 
an  instant ;  and  although  Miss  Lucretia  well  knew  that  disease 
was  but  a  frame  of  mind,  that  contagion  was  a  myth,  and  that 
dirt  itself  was  only  a  "  belief,"  the  moment  a  patient  was  out 
of  the  house,  up  went  the  windows,  and  the  draperies  went 
out  on  the  clothes-line. 

In  her  last  illness  she  called  in  her  old  family  physician, 
but  refused  to  let  him  prescribe  for  her,  explaining  that  she 
merely  wished  liim  to  diagnose  her  case  so  that  her  Christian 
Science  healer  would  know  what  to  treat  her  for.  Her  death 
Avas  as  orderly  as  her  life.  When  she  felt  that  her  "  belief  " 
(pneumonia)  was  gaining  on  her,  she  called  in  her  mother  and 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  237 

sister,  talked  over  her  business,  and  put  her  affairs  in  order, 
telhng  them  where  they  would  find  all  her  things.  When  she 
had  given  all  her  directions,  she  asked  them  if  there  were  any- 
thing about  which  they  wished  to  question  her.  When  they 
replied  in  the  negative,  she  said,  "  Good-bye,  Mother.  Good- 
bye, Sister,"  and  smoothing  once  again  that  never-wrinkled, 
turned-back  sheet,  she  folded  her  hands  and  almost  instantly 
died. 

In  1878,  when  Miss  Brown  believed  that  Mr.  SpofFord  had 
bewitched  her,  she  was  a  patient  of  Miss  Dorcas  Rawson.  Miss 
Rawson  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Rice,  it  will  be  remembered,  were 
among  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  students  in  Lynn.  They  were  daugh- 
ters of  a  large  family  in  Maine,  and  when  they  were  very 
young  girls  came  to  Lynn  to  make  their  way  in  the  shoe  shops. 
Miranda  soon  married  Mr.  Rice  and  left  the  factory.  After 
the  two  sisters  had  studied  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  Dorcas  also  left 
the  factory  and  became  a  practising  healer.  She  was  as  ardent 
in  her  new  faith  as  she  had  been  before  in  Methodism.  While 
a  Methodist  she  had  been  one  of  a  number  who  "  professed 
holiness,"  that  is,  who  felt  that  in  their  daily  walk  they  were 
so  near  to  God  that  His  presence  protected  them  from  even 
the  temptation  to  sin.  Miss  Rawson  was  a  thorouglily  good 
and  unselfish  woman,  and  so  earnest  and  forceful  that  perhaps 
in  a  later  day  she  would  have  been  called  "  strong-minded." 
However  devoted  in  service,  such  a  firm  and  independent  nature 
would  almost  inevitably  clash  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  at  times,  and 
Miss  Rawson  had  more  than  one  painful  difference  with  her 
teacher.  But  it  was  hard  for  Miss  Rawson  to  give  up  a  friend, 
harder  than  to  bear  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  unreasonableness.     After 


238        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

these  disagreements  she  always  came  back,  telling  her  friends 
that  she  could  not  endure  to  be  separated  from  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
spirit,  and  that,  when  she  was,  she  felt  her  health  failing 
and  discouragement  threatening  to  overwhelm  her. 

Wlien,  under  her  treatment.  Miss  Brown  suffered  a  relapse, 
Miss  Rawson,  in  her  perplexity,  went  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  the  solution  at  her  tongue's  end.  Daniel  SpofFord, 
in  his  general  opposition  to  truth,  was  exercising  upon  Miss 
BrowTi  his  mesmeric  arts.  Miss  Rawson  was  at  first  loath  to 
believe  this.  Mr.  SpofFord  was  an  old  and  trusted  friend; 
even  had  he  been  subsidised  by  Richard  Kennedy,  why  should 
Mortal  Mind,  as  exercised  by  Mr.  SpofFord,  prevail  over  Divine 
Mind  as  employed  by  Miss  Rawson?  But  Mrs.  Eddy  convinced 
her,  with  her  will  or  against  it,  and  also  convinced  poor  Miss 
Brown. 

Mr.  SpofFord's  acquaintance  with  Miss  Brown  had  been  slight. 
When  she  was  studying  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  she,  with  other  stu- 
dents, had  entered  his  class  in  the  Interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. When  Miss  Brown's  health  began  to  fail,  he  had  not 
seen  her  for  some  months  and  was  ignorant  alike  of  her  illness 
and  the  supposed  cause  of  it.  After  Miss  Lucretia  had  begun 
to  regard  him  as  the  author  of  her  ills,  Mr.  SpofFord  was  in 
Ipswich  one  day  and  bethought  him  of  calling  upon  his  old 
student.  Accordingly  he  went  down  to  the  Green  and  knocked 
at  her  cottage.  Miss  Brown  herself  came  to  the  door  and 
immediately  fell  into  great  agitation.  Ordinarily  a  pale  woman, 
her  checks  and  forehead  flushed  so  hotly  that  Mr.  SpofFord 
innocently  thought  that  she  must  be  making  preserves  and  had 
just  come  from  the  stove.     She  stood  for  a  moment,  very  ill 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  239 

at  ease,  and,  without  asking  him  to  come  in,  begged  him  to 
excuse  her  and  ran  back  into  the  house.  When  she  reappeared, 
she  seemed  even  more  distracted  than  before,  and  Mr.  Spofford 
now  felt  sure  that  he  had  intruded  upon  some  critical  moment 
in  preserve-making,  and  told  her  that  he  would  call  again  when 
he  next  happened  to  be  in  Ipswich.  He  went  away,  leaving 
Miss  Brown  to  wonder  whether  he  had  merely  come  to  see  how 
his  victim  did,  or  whether  he  had  come  to  do  her  further 
harm. 

By  this  time  Mrs.  Eddy  had  Mr.  Spofford  upon  her  mind 
almost  as  constantly  as  she  had  Richard  Kennedy.  In  April, 
a  month  before  the  charge  of  witchcraft  was  made  against 
him,  Mrs.  Eddy  filed  a  bill  in  equity  against  Mr.  Spofford  to 
recover  tuition  and  a  royalty  on  his  practice.  This  suit  was 
still  pending  when  the  witchcraft  case  came  up,  and  was  dis- 
missed June  3d  because  of  defects  in  the  writ  and  insufficient 
service.  The  Newburyport  Herald  of  May  16th,  in  comment- 
ing editorially  upon  the  witchcraft  case,  said:  "Mrs.  Eddy 
tried,  some  time  since,  to  induce  us  to  publish  an  attack 
upon  Spofford,  which  we  declined  to  do,  and  we  under- 
stand that  similar  requests  were  made  to  other  papers  in  the 
county." 

In  preparing  to  prosecute  the  witchcraft  case,  Mrs.  Eddy 
first  selected  twelve  students  from  the  Christian  Scientists' 
Association- — she  has  always  been  partial  to  tlie  apostolic  num- 
ber— and  called  on  these  students  to  meet  her  at  her  house  and 
treat  Mr.  Spofford  adversely,  as  other  students  had  formerly 
treated  Richard  Kennedy.  She  required  each  of  these  twelve 
students,  one  after  another,  to  take  Mr.  Spofford  up  mentally 


24-0        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

for  two  hours,  declaring  in  thought  that  he  had  no  power 
to  heal,  must  give  up  his  practice,  etc.  Mr.  Henry  F,  Dunncls 
of  Ipswich  was  one  of  the  chosen  twelve.  He  says  in  his 
affidavit :  "  When  the  Spoff ord  lawsuit  came  along,  she  took 
twelve  of  us  from  the  Association  and  made  us  take  two  hours 
apiece,  one  after  the  other.  She  made  a  statement  that  this 
man  SpofFord  was  adverse  to  her  and  that  he  used  his  mesmeric 
or  hypnotic  power  over  her  students  and  her  students'  patients, 
and  hindered  the  students  from  performing  healing  on  their 
patients,  and  we  w^ere  held  together  to  keep  our  minds  over 
this  SpofFord  to  prevent  him  from  exercising  this  mesmeric 
power  over  her  students  and  patients.  This  twenty-four  hours' 
work  was  done  in  her  house." 

Having  thus  prepared  her  case  through  the  agency  of  Divine 
^  !/  Mind,  Mrs.  Eddy  next  set  about  making  the  most  of  human 
devices.  She  went  to  her  lawyer  in  Lynn  and  had  him  draw 
up  a  bill  of  complaint  in  Miss  Brown's  name,  setting  forth  the 
injuries  which  Miss  Brown  had  received  from  Mr.  Spofford's 
mesmeric  malice,  and  petitioning  the  court  to  restrain  him  from 
exercising  his  power  and  using  his  arts  upon  her.  The  text 
of  the  bill  is  in  part: 

Humbly  complaining,  the  PlaintiflF,  Lucretia  L.  S.  Brown  of  Ipswich  in 
said  County  of  Essex,  showeth  unto  your  Honours,  that  Daniel  H.  Spofford, 
of  Newburyport,  in  said  County  of  Essex,  the  defendant  in  the  above 
entitled  action,  is  a  mesmerist  and  practises  the  art  of  mesmerism  and  by 
his  said  art  and  the  power  of  his  mind  influences  and  controls  the  minds 
and  bodies  of  other  persons  and  uses  his  said  power  and  art  for  the 
purpose  of  injuring  the  persons  and  property  and  social  relations  of 
.  others  and  does  by  said  means  so  injure  them. 

And  the  plaintiff  further  showeth  that  the  said  Daniel  H.  Spofford 
has  at  divers  times  and  places  since  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and 
seventy-five,    wrongfully    and    maliciously    and    with    intent    to    injure    the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  241 

plaintiff,  caused  the  plaintiff  by  means  of  his  said  power  and  art  great 
suffering  of  body  and  mind  and  severe  spinal  pains  and  neuralgia  and 
a  temporary  susijension  of  mind,  and  still  continues  to  cause  the  plaintiff 
the  same.  And  the  plaintiff  has  reason  to  fear  and  does  fear  that  he 
will  continue  in  the  future  to  cause  the  same.  And  the  plaintiff  says  that 
said  injuries  are  great  and  of  an  irreparable  nature  and  that  she  is  wholly 
unable  to  escape  from  the  control  and  influence  he  so  exercises  upon  her 
and  from  the  aforesaid  effects  of  safd  control  and  influence. 

As  Mrs.  Eddy's  attorney  flatly  refused  to  argue  the  case 
In  court,  she  arranged  that  one  of  her  students,  Edward  J. 
Arens,  should  do  so.  At  the  opening  of  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  in  Salem  May  14,  1878,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Mr.  Arens 
appeared  under  power  of  attorney  for  Miss  Brown,  attended 
by  some  twenty  witnesses,  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses,"  as  the  Boston 
Globe  put  it  in  an  account  of  the  hearing.  When  they  were 
assembled  at  the  railway  station  in  Lynn  to  take  the  train  for 
Salem,  one  of  the  witnesses  went  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  protested 
that  he  knew  nothing  whatever  about  the  case  and  would  not 
know  what  to  say  were  he  called  upon  to  testify.  "  You  will 
be  told  what  to  say,"  replied  Mrs,  Eddy  reassuringly. 

Having  arrived  at  the  Salem  Court  House,  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
her  loyal  band  awaited  in  the  jury-room  the  entrance  of  the 
chief  justice.  As  soon  as  Judge  Horace  Gray  had  taken  his 
seat,  Mr.  Arens  arose  and  presented  his  petition  for  a  hearing 
on  the  bill  of  complaint.  He  then  made  an  exposition  of  the 
case  to  the  Judge,  who  ordered  that  an  order  of  notice  be 
served  upon  Mr.  SpofFord,  and  appointed  Friday,  May  17th, 
for  a  hearing  of  the  case.  Mr.  Arens  at  once  took  the  train 
for  Newbury  port  to  search  for  Mr.  Spofford,  as  Mrs.  Eddy 
feared  that  he  might  escape  into  another  State. 

Meanwhile  the  Massachusetts  press  was  making  the  most  of 


212        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

the  novel  legal  proceedings  at  Salem.  A  reporter  from  the 
Boston  Globe  called  at  Miss  Brown's  house  in  Ipswich,  but  was 
told  that  she  was  away  from  home.  Of  this  call  the  Globe 
published  the  following  account : 

In  an  interview  with  a  sister  of  Miss  Brown,  the  latter  being  out  of 
town,  the  lady  informed  the  Globe  reporter  that  she  and  her  family  believed 
that  there  was  no  limit  to  the  awful  power  of  mesmerism,  but  she  still  had 
some  faith  in  the  power  of  the  law,  and  thouglit  that  Dr.  Spofford  might 
be  awed  into  abstaining  from  injuring  her  sister  further.  That  he  does 
so  she  believes  there  is  no  possibility  of  a  doubt.  In  answer  to  a  query  put 
by  the  reporter,  she  admitted  that  should  Dr.  Spoiford  prove  so  disposed, 
even  though  he  be  incarcerated  behind  the  stone  walls  at  Charlestown, 
he  could  still  use  his  mesmeric  power  against  her  sister. 

On  Friday  morning  the  crowd  which  had  assembled  at  the 
Salem  Court  House  was  disappointed.  Mr.  Spofford  himself 
did  not  appear,  but  his  attorney,  Mr.  Noyes,  appeared  for  him 
and  filed  a  demurrer,  which  Judge  Gray  sustained,  declaring 
with  a  smile  that  it  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  Court  to 
control  Mr.  Spofford's  mind.  The  case  was  appealed,  and  the 
appeal  waived   the   following  November. 

So,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  two  centuries,  another  charge  of 
witchcraft  was  made  before  the  court  in  Salem  village.  But 
it  was  an  anachronism  merely,  and  elicited  such  ridicule  that 
it  was  hard  to  realise  that,  because  of  charges  quite  as  fanciful, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-six  persons  were  once  lodged  in  Salem 
jail,  nineteen  persons  were  hanged,  and  an  entire  community 
was  plunged  into  anguish  and  terror. 

During  the  long  years  that  the  grass  had  been  growing  and 
withering  above  the  graves  of  Martha  Corey  and  Rebecca  Nurse 
and  their  wretched  companions,  one  of  the  most  important  of 
all  possible  changes  had  taken  place  in  the  world — a  change 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  243 

in  the  mode  of  thinking.  The  work  of  Descartes,  Locke,  and 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  had  become  a  common  inheritance;  the  rela- 
tion of  physical  effect  with  physical  cause  had  become  estab- 
lished even  in  ignorant  and  unthinking  minds,  and  a  schoolboy 
of  1878  would  have  rejected  as  absurd  the  evidence  upon  which 
Judge  Hawthorne  condemned  a  woman  like  Mary  Easty  to 
death. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  attempt  to  revive  the  witch  horror  was  only  a 
courtroom  burlesque  upon  the  grimmest  tragedy  in  New  Eng- 
land history.  It  is  interesting  only  in  that  it  demonstrates 
how  surely  the  same  effects  follow  the  same  causes.  When  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  succeeded  in  overcoming  in  her  students'  minds  the 
tradition  of  sound  reasoning  of  which  they  and  their  century 
were  the  fortunate  heirs,  when  she  had  convinced  them  that  there 
were  no  physical  causes  for  physical  ills,  she  had  unwittingly 
plunged  them  back  into  the  torturing  superstitions  which  it  had 
taken  the  world  so  long  to  overcome.  The  capacity  for  esti- 
mating evidence  in  cases  of  physical  causation,  which  John 
Fiske  calls  "  one  of  the  world's  latest  and  most  laborious  acqui- 
sitions," once  denied,  the  Christian  Scientists  had  parted  with 
that  rational  attitude  of  mind  which  is  the  basis  of  the  health 
and  sanity  of  modern  life ;  which  has  abolished  religious  perse- 
cution as  well  as  controlled  contagious  disease,  and  has  made 
a  revival  of  the  witchcraft  terror  as  impossible  as  a  recurrence 
of  the  Black  Death.  This  rational  habit  of  mind  once  broken 
down,  two  good  women  like  Lucretia  Brown  and  Dorcas  Rawson 
could  suspect  a  good  man  of  the  malice  of  a  fiend.  Among  this 
little  group  of  people  who  had  been  friends  and  fellow-seekers 
after  God,  there  broke  out,  in  a  milder  form,  that  same  scourge 


244  LIFE  OF  ]MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

of  fear  and  distrust  which  demoralised  Salem  from  1692  to 
1694.  In  the  attempt  to  bring  the  glad  tidings  of  emancipa- 
tion from  the  operation  of  physical  law,  which  is  sometimes 
cruel,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  come  back  to  the  cruelest  of  all  debasing 
superstitions — that  of  attributing  disease  and  misfortune  to  a 
malevolent  human  agency. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    "  CONSPIRACY    TO    MURDER  "    CASE ARREST    OF    EDDY    AND 

ARENS    ON    A    SENSATIONAL    CHARGE HEARING    IN    COURT- 
DISCHARGE  OF  THE  DEFENDANTS 

From  1877  to  1879  Mrs.  Eddy  was  in  the  law-courts  so 
frequently  that  the  Boston  newspapers  began  to  feature  her 
litigations  and  to  refer  to  them  and  to  her  with  disrespectful 
jocularity. 

In  March,  1877,  George  W.  Barry,^  one  of  her  students, 
brought  his  suit  against  Mrs.  Eddy  for  twenty-seven  hundred 
dollars  for  services  rendered  her  in  copying  the  manuscript  of 
Science  and  Health,  attending  to  her  business,  storing  her  goods, 
putting  down  her  carpets,  working  in  her  garden,  and  paying 
out  money  for  her  on  various  accounts.  This  suit  dragged 
on  until  October,  1879,  when  it  was  decided  in  Barry's  favour, 
the  referee  awarding  him  three  hundred  and  ninety-five 
dollars  and  forty  cents,  with  interest  from  the  date  of  his 
writ. 

In  February  of  1878,  Mrs.  Eddy  brought  suit  against 
Richard  Kennedy  in  the  Municipal  Court  of  Suffolk  County 
to  recover  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  upon  a  promissory 
note  which  bore  the  date  February,  1870,  several  months  previ- 


*  A  full  account  of  this  action  was  given  in  Chapter  X. 

245 


2-i6        LIFE  OF  I^IARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ous  to  the  date  upon  which  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Kennedy  went  to 
Lynn  to  practise,  and  which  read  as  follows: 

February,  1870. 
In  consideration  of  two  years'  instruction  in  healing  the  sick,  I  hereby 
agree  to  pay   Mary  M.   B.   Glover,  one  thousand  dollars   in  quarterly   in- 
stalments   of   fifty    dollars    commencing    from    this    date. 

(Signed)  Richard  Kennedt. 

Mr.  Kennedy  admitted  having  signed  the  note,  but  testified 
tliat  when  Mrs.  Eddy  asked  him  to  do  so  she  said  that  she 
would  never  collect  it,  and  that  she  wanted  the  paper  simply 
to  shoAV  to  prospective  students  to  convince  them  of  the  monetary 
value  of  her  instruction.  He  further  testified  that  though,  when 
he  signed  the  note,  he  had  been  studying  with  Mrs.  Glover-Eddy 
for  two  years,  he  believed  at  the  time  that  she  was  withholding 
from  him  the  final  and  most  illuminating  secrets  of  her  Science, 
and  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that,  if  he  complied  with  her 
request  in  regard  to  the  note,  she  would  disclose  them  to  him. 

In  his  answer  he  stated  that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  "  obtained  the 
promissory  note  declared  on  by  pretending  that  she  had  im- 
portant secrets  relating  to  healing  the  sick  which  she  had  not 
theretofore  imparted  to  defendant,  and  which  she  promised  to 
impart  after  the  making  and  delivery  to  her  of  said  note,  and 
she  then  had  no  such  secrets  and  never  afterward  undertook 
to  impart  or  imparted  such  secrets." 

The  Municipal  Court  awarded  judgment  for  the  plaintiff 
of  seven  hundred  and  sixty-eight  dollars  and  sixty-three  cents, 
but  the  case  was  carried  to  the  Superior  Court  and  tried  before 
a  jury,  which  returned  a  verdict  for  Mr.  Kennedy. 

In  April,  1878,  came  Mrs.  Eddy's  suit  against  George  H. 
Tuttle  and  Charles  S.  Stanley,  two  of  her  earliest  students,  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  ^4<1 

discover  the  amount  of  their  practice  and  to  recover  a  royalty 
thereon,  which  was  decided  in  favour  of  the  defendants.^ 

In  April,  1878,  Mrs.  Eddy  brought  her  action  against 
Daniel  SpofFord  to  discover  the  amount  of  his  practice  and 
to  recover  royalty  thereon.  Her  original  idea  was  to  collect 
a  royalty  from  all  her  practising  students,  which  arrangement, 
could  she  have  held  them  to  it,  would,  in  time,  have  been  very 
remunerative.     This  case  was  dismissed  for  insufficient  service. 

In  May  of  the  same  year  came  the  witchcraft  case.  Brown  vs. 
SpofFord,  of  which  Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  instigator,  and  in  which 
she  represented  the  plaintiff  in  court. 

These  lawsuits  reached  a  sensational  climax  when,  in  October, 
1878,  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy  and  Edward  J.  Arens  were  arrested 
on  the  charge  of  conspiracy  to  murder  Daniel  H.  SpofFord. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  SpofFord  had  been  one  of 
the  most  earnest  and  trusted  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students.  She  had 
permitted  him  to  assist  in  her  teaching,  had  given  him  the  pen 
with  which  Science  and  Health  was  written,  and  had  intrusted 
to  him  the  sale  of  her  book.  She  seems  at  one  time  even  to 
have  considered  the  possibility  of  his  being  her  successor. 

In  a  letter  dated  October  1,  1876,  she  writes: 

My  joy  at  having  one  living  student  after  these  dozen  years  of  struggle, 
toil  and  defeat,  you  at  present  cannot  understand,  but  will  know  at  a 
future  time  when  the  whole  labour  is  left  with  you.  .  .  .  The  students 
make  all  their  mistakes  leaning  on  me,  or  uiorking  against  mt.  You  are 
not  going  to  do  either,  and  certainly  the  result  will  follow  that  you  will 
be   faithful  over  a   few  things  and  be  made  ruler  over  many. 


2  This  suit  has  alroady  boon  rcforrrd  to  in  Chapter  TX.  From  .Tudgp  Choate  s 
finrtins  it  would  seom  tliat  his  decision  was  based  largely  on  the  fact  that  when 
Mrs  Eddy  taus^ht  Tuttlc  and  Stanley  in  1870  she  still  instructed  her  students 
to  "  manipulate  "  the  heads  of  their  patients,  whereas  she  later  repudiated  this 
method  and  declared  before  Judge  Choate  that  it  was  of  no  efficacy  m  healing 
the  sick,  thus  discrediting  the  instruction  she  had  given  the  defendants. 


24.8        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

She  continually  consulted  Mr.  SpofFord  in  tlie  prc2^^i'^tIon 
of  the  second  edition  of  Science  and  Health  (the  little  book 
which  was  eventually  converted  into  an  intermittent  attack  upon 
him),  and  in  a  letter  written  several  weeks  after  the  above 
she  says: 

Lynn,  Oct.  22,  '76. 
Dk.  Spofford — 

Dear  Student — Your  interesting  letter  just  read.  I  am  in  a  condition 
to  feel  all  and  more  than  all  you  said.  The  mercury  of  my  mind  is  rising 
as  the  world's  temperature  of  thought  heats  up  and  the  little  book  "  sweet 
in  the  mouth  "  but  severe  and  glorious  in  its  proof,  is  about  to  go  forth 
like  Noah's  dove  over  the  troubled  waves  of  doubt,  infidelity  and  bigotry, 
to  find  if  possible  a  foothold  on  earth.  ...  I  have  great  consolation 
in  you,  in  your  Christian  character  that  I  read  yet  more  and  more,  the 
zeal  that  should  attend  the  saints,  and  the  patient  waiting  for  our  Lord's 
coming. 

Press  on;  You  know  not  the  smallest  portion,  comparatively,  of  your 
ability  in  science.  .  .  .  Inflammation  of  the  spinal  nerves  are  what  I 
suffer  most  in  belief.^ 

There  was  no  middle  ground  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  it  was 
her  policy  to  strike  before  she  could  be  struck.  After  her 
disagreement  with  Mr.  SpofFord  concerning  his  disposition  of 
the  money  he  had  received  from  the  sale  of  her  book,  she  de- 
nounced him  as  an  enemy  to  truth,  had  her  students  begin 
to  treat  against  him,  expelled  him  from  the  Christian  Scientists' 
Association,  tried  to  induce  the  county  papers  to  publish  attacks 
upon  him,  and  launched  two  lawsuits  at  him  within  a  month 
of  each  other.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  husband  gave  such  wide 
circulation  to  the  charge  that  Mr.  SpofFord  had  been  dishonest 
in  regard  to  the  sale  of  the  book,  that  the  publishers  of  the 
book  felt  called  upon  to  publish  the  following  statement : 

»  This  refers  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  continued  ill  health. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  U9 

TO    THE    PUBLIC 

Having  heard  certain  malicious  statements  concerning  our  business 
transactions  with  Dr.  D.  H.  Spoflford  of  Newburyport,  we,  the  undersigned, 
original  publishers  of  "  Science  and  Health,"  written  by  Mary  Baker 
Glover  of  Lynn,  in  justice  to  him  desire  to  correct  them.  He  settled 
with  us  July  25th,  1877,  paying  several  hundred  dollars  cash  and  giving 
notes  (which  were  promptly  taken  up  when  due)  for  the  further  amount 
of  his  indebtedness.  His  account  had  been  carefully  examined  by  coimsel 
and  found  correct  and  satisfactory.  We  desire  to  STOP  the  untruths 
which  some  person  or  persons  have  set  afloat. 

George  W.  Barry, 

Jan.  21st,  1878.  E.  M.  Newhall, 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  convinced  that  SpofFord  was  a  mesmerist 
and  openly  denounced  him  as  a  malpractitioner.*  Her  students 
had  orders  to  discredit  him  as  widely  as  possible,  and  Mr. 
Spofford  soon  began  to  see  the  result  of  their  efforts  in  the 
falling  off  of  his  practice.  It  was  Mr.  Arens'  practice  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  endeavouring  to  build  up. 

Edward  J.  Arens  was  a  Prussian  who  had  come  to  Lynn  as 
a  young  man,  where  he  worked  as  a  carpenter  until  he  was  able 
to  open  a  cabinet-making  shop.  He  was  a  good  workman,  but 
was  not  particularly  successful  in  his  business,  and  was  fre- 
quently involved  in  litigation.     Although  his  educational  oppor- 


■*  She  thus  explained  her  position  in  the  local  press: 
"  BOTH  SIDES 

"  Mr.  Editor  : — We  desire  to  say  through  the  columns  of  your  interesting 
weekly,  that  certain  threatening  letters  received  by  ourself,_  and  an  esteemed 
citizen  of  one  of  vour  adjacent   towns,   had  better  be  discontinued. 

"These  letters  are  from  a  Mr.  Noyes  [Spofiford's  attorney]  of  Newburyport, 
under  orders  of  D.  H.  Spofford.  who  is  already  prosecuted  by  us  to  answer  at 
a  higher  tribunal  than  the  prejudice,  falsehood  or  malice,  before  which  some 
people  would  arraign  others. 

"  We  have  befriended  this  former  student  of  ours  when  friendless,  we  have 
effected  cures  for  him  professionally,  not  only  in  the  cases  of  Mrs.  Atkinson, 
Miss  Tandy,  and  Miss  Ladd,  but  others,  and  we  did  this  without  any  reward, 
but  to  gain  some  place  for  him  in  the  public  confidence. 

"As  the  founder  of  a  Metaphysical  practice,  we  have  a  warm  interest  la 
the  success  of  all  our  students,  and  have  always  promoted  it  unless  compellea 
in  some  especial  instances,  by  a  strong  sense  of  our  duty  to  the  pubnc,  to  speaK 

of   a   MALPRACTICE.        '  ^,  c<         ^       .,,.  ii,..t-.mt" 

"  Author  of  Science  and  Health. 


250        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

tunitics  had  been  limited,  he  had  an  active  mind.  He  read  a 
great  deal,  was  restless,  eager,  and  ambitious.  When  he  be- 
came a  student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's,  he  gave  up  his  cabinet  business 
and,  naturally  hot-headed  and  impulsive,  he  threw  himself  into 
metaphysical  healing  with  great  enthusiasm.  He  came  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  succour  in  a  critical  hour,  when  she  desperately  needed 
a  man  who  could  devote  himself  effectively  to  her  cause.  Mr. 
Eddy  had  never  been  a  man  of  much  initiative,  and  his  terror 
of  mesmerism  had  cowed  him  beyond  his  natural  docility. 

By  this  time  Mrs.  Eddy's  hatred  for  Mr.  Spofford  had 
reached  the  acute  stage,  where  it  kept  her  walking  the  floor 
at  night,  declaring  that  Spofford's  mind  was  pursuing  and 
bullying  hers,  and  that  she  could  not  shake  it  off.  Mr.  Eddy, 
a  helpless  spectator  of  his  wife's  misery,  used  to  declare  that 
the  man  ought  to  be  punished  for  persecuting  her,  and  be- 
lieved that  Mr.  Spofford's  mind  was  on  their  track  night  and 
day,  seeking  to  break  down  Mrs.  Eddy's  health,  to  get  their 
property  away  from  them,  and  to  overthrow  the  movement. 
Mr.  Spofford,  on  the  other  hand,  was  scarcely  less  distraught. 
He  still  believed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  brought  him  the  great 
truth  of  his  life,  and  that,  however  unworthy,  she  had  a  divine 
message.  He  felt  his  separation  from  her  deeply,  and  was 
amazed  and  terrified  by  her  vindictiveness.  He  feared  that 
Mrs,  Eddy  would  not  stop  until  she  had  entirely  destroyed  his 
practice,  and  he  never  knew  what  weapon  she  would  use  against 
him  next.  Only  a  state  of  panic  on  both  sides  can  explain 
the  developments  of  the  autumn  of  1878. 

One  morning  early  in  October  a  heavy-set,  rather  biiital- 
looking  man  knocked   at  the   door  of  Mr.   Spofford's   Boston 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  251 

office,  Number  297  Tremoiit  Street,  and  said  he  wanted  to  see 
the  Doctor.  Mr.  Spoiford  glanced  at  the  man  and,  thinking 
he  was  not  the  sort  of  person  who  would  be  likely  to  consult 
a  mental  healer,  asked  him  if  he  were  sure  that  he  had  come  to 
the  right  kind  of  a  doctor.  The  man  introduced  himself  as 
James  L.  Sargent,  a  saloon-keeper,  took  from  his  pocket  a  card 
which  Mr.  Spofford  had  left  on  the  door  of  his  Newburyport 
office,  and,  pointing  to  the  name  on  it,  said  that  was  the  doctor 
he  had  come  to  see.  After  taking  a  seat  in  the  consulting-room, 
Sargent  asked  Mr.  SpofFord  whether  he  knew  two  men  named 
Miller  and  Libby.     Mr.  SpofFord  replied  that  he  did  not. 

"  Well,  they  know  you,"  insisted  Sargent,  "  and  they  want 
to  get  you  put  out  of  the  way.  Miller,  the  young  man,  says 
you  are  going  with  the  old  man's  daughter  and  he  wants  to 
marry  her  himself."  Sargent  went  on  to  explain  that  these 
two  men  had  offered  him  five  hundred  dollars  to  put  Mr.  Spof- 
ford out  of  the  way  and  had  paid  him  seventy-five  dollars  in 
advance.  He  declared  that,  while  he  meant  to  get  all  the  money 
he  could  out  of  it,  he  had  no  intention  of  risking  his  neck,  and 
said  that  he  had  already  notified  State  Detective  Hollis  C.  Pink- 
ham  and  had  asked  him  to  watch  the  case. 

Mr.  Spofford  immediately  called  upon  Pinkham  and  found 
that  Sargent  had  told  him  the  same  story.  Pinkham  said, 
however,  that  he  had  paid  very  little  attention  to  the  story,  as 
Sargent  had  a  criminal  record,  and  he  had  thought  that  the 
man  was  up  to  some  game  to  square  himself  with  the  Police 
Department.  He  promised  to  look  into  the  matter  more  care- 
fully, and  Mr.   Spofford  went  away. 

Several  days  later  Sargent  came  in  and  said  that  Miller  and 


S52        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Libbj  were  pressing  him.  He  had  gone  to  them  for  more 
money,  assuring  them  that  Mr.  Spofford  was  already  dead, 
but  they  had  sent  a  young  man  to  Spofford's  office  to  investi- 
gate, and  accused  Sargent  of  playing  them  false. 

Mr.  Spofford  was  now  thoroughly  alarmed.  Sargent  sug- 
gested that  he  accompany  him  to  his  (Sargent's)  brother's 
house  at  Cambridgeport  and  conceal  himself  there  while  he 
(Sargent)  tried  to  collect  the  money  promised  him  by  Miller 
and  Libby.  Mr.  Spofford  consulted  with  Detective  Pinkham 
and  then  disappeared.  Sargent,  so  he  later  declared  in 
court,  informed  Miller  and  Libby,  whom  he  identified  as 
Edward  J,  Arens  and  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  that  he  had  dis- 
posed of  Mr.  Spofford,  whereupon  he  received  a  part  of  the 
money  promised  him.  Mr.  Spofford  left  Boston  Tuesday,  Oc- 
tober 15th,  and  remained  about  two  weeks  at  the  house  of 
Sargent's  sister-in-law.  Sargent  had  promised  to  come  out  and 
give  him  new^s  of  the  case,  but  as  he  failed  to  do  so,  Mr. 
Spofford  then  returned  to  Boston,  going  first  to  his  brother's 
store  in  Lawrence.  Li  the  meantime  his  friends  had  been 
greatly  alarmed  at  his  disappearance,  had  advertised  him  as 
missing,  and  had  published  a  description  of  him  in  the  Boston 
papers. 

On  October  29th  Edward  J.  Arens  and  Asa  G.  Eddy  were 
arrested  and  held  in  three  thousand  dollars  bail  for  examina- 
tion in  the  Municipal  Court  on  November  7th. 

As  Mrs.  Eddy  af  tenvard  indignantly  wrote,  "  the  principal 
witnesses  for  the  prosecution  were  convicts  and  inmates  of 
houses  of  ill  fame  in  Boston."  A  motley  array  of  witnesses, 
certainly,  confronted  the  judge  when  the  Municipal  Court  con- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  253 

veiled  on  the  afternoon  of  November  7th.  Sargent  was  a  bar- 
tender with  a  criminal  record.  George  Collier,  his  friend,  was, 
at  that  time,  under  bonds,  waiting  trial  on  several  most  un- 
savoury charges.  Laura  Sargent,  the  sister  of  James  Sargent, 
who  kept  a  disorderly  house  at  Number  7  Bowker  Street, 
appeared  with  several  of  her  girls,  all  vividly  got  up  for  the 
occasion  and  ingenuously  pleased  at  coming  into  court  in  the 
dignified  role  of  witnesses  for  the  Commonwealth.  Mr.  H.  W. 
Chaplin  appeared  for  the  prosecution,  and  Russell  H.  Conwell 
appeared  for  the  defendants.  Mr.  Chaplin  briefly  opened  the 
case  for  the  Government,  contending  that  he  should  be  able 
to  prove  directly  that  the  defendants  had  conspired  to  take 
the  life  of  Mr.  Spofford,  and  that  Sargent  had  been  paid 
upwards  of  two  hundred  dollars  toward  the  five  hundred  dollars 
due  him  for  the  job.  The  evidence  adduced  at  the  hearing 
was  in  substance  as  follows : 

James  L.  Sargent  testified  that  he  was  a  saloon-keeper  in 
Sudbury  Street,^  that  he  had  become  acquainted  four  months 
before  with  a  man  who  called  himself  "  Miller,"  but  whom 
he  recognised  as  the  defendant,  Arens ;  that  Miller,  or  Arens, 
came  to  his  saloon  to  tell  fortunes;  that  Arens  had  told  him 
he  knew  of  a  good  job  where  three  or  four  hundred  dollars 
could  be  made;  that  he,  Sargent,  Inquired  about  the  job,  and 
Arens  asked  him  If  he  could  be  depended  on;  that  Sargent 
assured  him  on  that  point,  and  Arens  then  told  him  that  he 
wanted  a  man  "licked,"  and  "he  wanted  him  licked  so  that 
he  wouldn't   come  to  again." 


» Sarpent  stated  in  court  that,  when  he  first  met  Mr.  Arens,  he  was  a 
bartender  in  a  saloon  on  Portland  Street.  He  had  been  running  a  place  of 
his  own  for  about  six  weeks  when  the  hearing  occurred. 


254        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

I  told  him  [said  Sargentl  that  I  was  just  the  man  for  him,  and  Arens 
said  the  old  man  [Libby]  would  not  pay  out  more  than  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  get  the  job  done,  as  he  had  already  been  beaten  out  of 
seventy-five  dollars.  I  met  Arens  the  following  Saturday  at  the  corner 
of  Charles  and  Leverett  streets  at  five  o'clock,  and  we  walked  down 
Charles  Street  into  an  alleyway.  He  said  Libby  was  not  satisfied  and 
wanted  to  see  me  himself.  .  .  .  We  selected  a  spot  in  a  freight-yard 
where  he  and  the  old  man  [Libby]  would  meet  me  in  half  an  hour.  In 
the  meantime,  fearing  that  the  affair  might  be  a  plot  of  some  kind  against 
myself,  I  borrowed  a  revolver  of  a  friend  and  got  another  friend  named 
Collier  to  go  with  me.  Collier  secreted  himself  in  a  freight-car  with 
the  door  partially  opened,  so  that  he  could  overhear  any  conversation,  and 
at  the  appointed  time  I  met  Arens  and  a  man  who  was  known  to  me  as 
"  Libby,"  but  whom  I  recognise  as  the  defendant,  Eddy.  .  .  .  Eddy 
asked  me  how  much  money  I  wanted  to  do  the  job,  and  I  told  him  I  ought 
to  have  one  hundred  dollars  to  start  with.  He  asked  if  I  would  take 
seventy-five  dollars  at  the  outset,  and  I  said  I  would.  He  wanted  to 
know  if  I  would  be  square,  and  I  told  him  yes.  He  then  said  he  had  but 
thirty-five  dollars  with  him  that  night,  which  he  would  give  me,  and 
would  send  the  remainder  by  Arens  on  the  following  Monday.  I  told  him 
no,  I  must  have  the  whole  at  that  time.  Just  then  a  man  came  walking 
down  the  freight-yards,  and  Arens  told  me  in  a  quick  tone  to  meet  him 
Monday  morning.  I  did  so,  and  Arens  passed  me  seventy-five  dollars. 
.  .  .  A  few  days  later  I  met  Arens  again,  and  he  said  he  would  bring 
me  directions  where  to  find  Dr.  Spofford.  He  gave  me  an  advertisement, 
clipped  from  some  newspaper,  giving  the  days  when  I  could  find  Dr. 
Spoff'ord  at  his  offices  in  Haverhill  and  Newburyport. 


After  telling  in  detail  of  his  own  delay  in  following  in- 
structions and  of  spending  the  money  and  putting  Arens  off, 
Sargent's  testimony  continued: 

We  went  to  the  Hotel  Tremont,  and  Arens  gave  me  sixteen  dollars, 
with  which  I  went  to  the  Doctor's  office  in  Newburyport.  I  did  not  see 
the  Doctor,  but  brought  away  one  of  his  business  cards;  came  back  and 
called  at  Dr.  Spofford's  office  and  had  a  conversation  with  him.  I  after- 
ward met  Arens  on  the  Common  by  appointment,  and  told  him  I  had 
made  arrangements  to  have  the  Doctor  go  out  of  town.  ...  In  a 
few  days  he  met  me  on  the  Common  again.  He  said  I  was  playing  it 
on  him  and  that  the  whole  thing  was  a  put-up  job,  for  Dr.  Spofford 
was  in  his  office.     He  had  sent  a  boy  to  find  out. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  255 

Sargent  said  he  met  Arens  several  times  after  that,  and 
finally  they  agreed  that  Sargent  should  take  SpofFord  into 
the  country  on  the  pretence  that  he  had  a  sick  child.  He  took 
the  Doctor  to  his  brother's  in  Cambridgeport  and  kept  him 
there  about  two  weeks.  The  fact  that  SpofFord  had  dis- 
appeared was  published  in  the  papers.  Sargent  said  he  had 
met  Arens  after  that,  and  told  him  that  he  had  made  away 
with  the  Doctor,  and  that  he  had  done  it  about  half-past  seven 
in  the  evening.  Sargent  said  that  Arens  replied  that  he  had 
known  this — that  he  had  felt  it,  and  had  a  way  of  telling  such 
things  that  other  people  knew  nothing  of. 

He  saw  him  several  times  afterward,  and  finally  Arens  agreed 
to  pay  him  some  money.  They  met  in  Lynn  on  Monday,  after 
the  disappearance  of  Spofford.  Mr.  Eddy  was  also  there,  and 
Arens  paid  the  witness  twenty  dollars. 

Their  plan,  Sargent  said,  had  been  to  take  SpofFord  out 
on  some  lonely  road  and  have  him  knocked  in  the  head  with 
a  billy,  afterward  causing  the  horse  to  run  away,  first  en- 
tangling the  body  with  the  harness,  so  it  would  appear  that 
death  was  caused  by  accident. 

Another  witness  was  Jessie  Macdonald,  who  had  lived  as 
housekeeper  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  eight  months.  She  had 
never  seen  SpofFord,  but  she  had  heard  Mr.  Eddy  say  that 
SpofFord  kept  Mrs.  Eddy  in  agony,  and  that  he  would  be  glad 
if  SpofFord  were  out  of  the  way.  She  had  heard  Mrs.  Eddy 
read  a  chapter  from  the  Old  Testament  which  says  that  all 
wicked  people  should  be  destroyed. 

James  Kelly  testified  to  holding  a  conversation  with  Sargent, 
who  told  him  of  the  job  he  had  on  hand. 


256        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

John  Smith,  Sargent's  bartender,  testified  that  he  saw  Arens 
in  Sargent's  saloon  four  times. 

Laura  Sargent,  James  Sargent's  sister,  who  kept  a  house 
of  ill-fame  in  Bowker  Street,  testified  that  Sargent  had  a  room 
in  her  house,  and  that  Arens  had  come  there  three  or  four 
times  to  see  him;  also  that  Sargent  had  given  her  seventy-five 
dollars  to  keep  for  him,  saying  he  was  going  away  to  his 
brother's  in  Cambridgeport. 

Hollis  C.  Pinkham,  the  detective  employed  on  the  case,  said 
that  Sargent  had  laid  the  case  before  him,  and  that  he  had  told 
Sargent  to  go  ahead  and  find  out  what  he  could;  that  he  had 
seen  Sargent  and  Arens  together  in  conversation  on  the  Com- 
mon ;  that  he  had  followed  Eddy  to  his  home  in  Lynn,  and 
had  seen  Sargent  go  toward  the  door  of  Eddy's  house  there; 
that  he  had  asked  Eddy  if  he  had  arranged  to  put  Spofford 
out  of  the  way ;  that  Eddy  had  denied  having  been  in  Sargent's 
saloon  or  meeting  him  in  a  freight-yard ;  that  Arens  had  main- 
tained he  had  never  seen  or  known  Sargent,  even  when  con- 
fronted with  Sargent. 

Detective  Chase  Philbrick,  also  employed  on  the  case,  testified 
to  seeing  Sargent  at  Eddy's  house  in  Lynn ;  saw  him  try  to  get 
in,  but  fail  to  do  so.     He  corroborated  the  evidence  of  Pinkham. 

George  A.  Collier,  a  carpenter,  was  an  important  witness. 
He  said  he  worked  in  Sargent's  saloon  when  he  was  out  of  a 
job,  and  told  of  going  with  Sargent  to  the  freight-house  and 
concealing  himself  in  an  empty  car,  leaving  the  door  ajar, 
so  that  he  might  hear  a  conversation  between  Sargent  and 
another  man.  He  corroborated  Sargent's  testimony  as  to 
what  transpired. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  257 

This  closed  the  case  for  the  Government.  The  defence  offered 
no  evidence,  as  this  was  a  case  where  only  probable  cause  for 
suspicion  was  to  be  shown,  and  it  was  then  to  go  to  a  higher 
court.  Mr.  Conwell,  counsel  for  the  defendants,  did  not  in- 
dicate what  line  the  defence  would  take. 

Counsel  for  the  Government  submitted  no  argument,  but 
called  the  attention  of  the  court  to  the  chain  of  circumstances 
which  had  been  brought  out  by  the  evidence,  and  which  he 
believed  was  strong  enough  to  justify  holding  the  defend- 
ants. 

Judge  May  remarked  that  the  case  was  a  very  anomalous 
one,  but  that  there  was,  in  his  opinion,  sufficient  evidence  to 
show  that  the  parties  should  be  held  to  appear  before  the 
Superior  Court.  He  therefore  fixed  the  amount  of  bail  at 
three  thousand  dollars  each  for  the  appearance  of  the  defend- 
ants at  the  December  term  of  the  Superior  Court. 

The  case  was  called  in  the  Superior  Court  in  December,  1878, 
and  an  indictment  was   found  on  two  counts.® 

The  Superior  Court  record  reads : 

This  indictment  was  found  and  returned  into  Court  by  the  Grand  Jurors 
at  the  last  December  term,  when  the  said  Arens  and  Eddy  were  severally 
set  at  the  bar  and  having  said  indictment  read  to  them,  they  severally 
said  thereof  that  they  were  not  guilty. 


«The  first  read:   "That  Kdwarri  J.  Arens  and  Asa  O.   fW  "f  ,^fston  ^/^'^^e^ 
said,    on    the    28th    day   of   July    in    the   year   of   our    Lord    one    thousand    e.^ht 
hundred    and    seventy-ei^ht.    Boston    aforesaid,    ^itji    Foice    and    Arms     i^^^^^ 
persons  of  evil   minds  and  dispositions  did  «!$",  «"'5„„^^ere   unlawfiUly  cons,nrc 
combine,    and    agree    together    feloniously,    wilfully,    and    of    their   malice    atoie 
thought,  to  procure,  hire,  incite,  and  sohcit    one  •Tames  LSgent,  r«^/    -f^"  ° 
sum    of   money,    to    wit,    the    sum    of    five   hundred   dollars     to    be   paid    to    sad 
Sargent  by   them,   said   Arens   and   Eddy,   felo'^ously    wilfully,   and   of   m 
Sargent's   malice   aforethought,   in   some   way   and   "a^^^'    onfol   H    Snoffo^-d    to 
Instruments,   and  weapons,   to  said  jurors  unknown,  one    Darnel  Hbpoffoid^ 
kill  and  murder      Against  the  law.   peace,   and  dignity  of  said  Commonwf  aitn. 

The  second  count  charged  the  prisoners  with  hiring.  Sargent  '' with  force  an<i 
arms  in  and  upon  one,  Daniel  H.  'spofEord,  to  beat,  bruise  wound,  and  evil  treat, 
against  the  law,  peace,  and  dignity  of  said  Commonwealth. 


258        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

This  indictment  was  thence  continued  to  the  present  January  term, 
and  now  the  District  Attorney,  Oliver  Stevens,  Esquire,  says  he  will 
prosecute  this  indictment  no  further,  on  payment  of  costs,  which  are 
thereupon  paid.  And  the  said  Arens  and  Eddy  are  thereupon  discharged. 
January  31,  1879. 

There  is  no  memorandum  filed  with  the  papers  in  the  case 
to  show  the  reason  for  the  nol.  pros.,  and  a  letter  of  inquiry 
sent  July,  1905,  to  the  late  Oliver  Stevens,  the  District  Attor- 
ney, elicited  the  reply  that  he  had  kept  no  data  concerning 
the  case,  and  the  circumstances  which  caused  him  to  enter  a 
nol.  pros,  had  gone  from  his  mind. 

On  October  9th,  six  days  before  Mr.  Spofford  fled  to  Cam- 
bridgeport,  he  received  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  dated  from 
Number  8  Broad  Street,  Lynn.     It  read  as  follows : 

Dear  Stxtdent, 

Won't  you  make  up  your  mind  before  it  is  forever  too  late  to  stop 
sinning  with  your  eyes  wide  open?  I  pray  for  j'ou  that  God  will  influence 
your  thoughts  to  better  issues  and  make  you  a  good  and  great  man,  and 
spare  you  the  penalty  that  must  come  if  you  do  not  forsake  sin. 

I  am  ready  at  any  time  to  welcome  you  back,  and  kill  for  you  the 
fatted  calf,  that  is,  destroy  in  my  own  breast  the  great  material  error 
of  rendering  evil  for  evil  or  resenting  the  wrongs  done  us.  I  do  not 
cherish  this  purpose  toward  any  one.  I  am  too  selfish  to  do  myself  this 
great  injury.  I  want  you  to  be  good  and  happy  in  being  good  for  you 
never  can  be  happy  without  it.  I  rebuke  error  only  to  destroy  it  not  to 
harm  you,  but  to  do  you  good.  Whenever  a  straying  student  returns  to 
duty,  stops  his  evil  practice  or  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  am  ready 
to  say,  "  neither  do  I  condemn  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more."  I  write  you 
at  this  time  only  from  a  sense  of  the  high  and  holy  privilege  of  charity, 
the  greatest  of  all  graces.  Do  not  mistake  my  motive,  I  am  not  worldly 
selfish  in  doing  this,  but  am  only  desirous  to  do  you  good.  Your  silent 
arguments  to  do  me  harm  have  done  me  the  greatest  possible  good;  the 
wrath  of  man  has  praised  Thee.  In  order  to  meet  the  emergency.  Truth  has 
lifted  me  above  my  former  self,  enabled  me  to  know  who  is  using  this 
argument  and  when  and  what  is  being  spoken,  and  knowing  this,  what  is 
said  in  secret  is  proclaimed  on  the  house  top  and  affects  me  no  more  than 
for  you  to  say  it  to  me  audibly,  and  tell  me  I  have  so  and  so;  and  to  hate 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  259 

my  husband;  that  I  feel  others;  that  arguments  cannot  do  good;  that 
Mrs.  Rice  cannot;  that  my  husband  cannot,  etc.,  etc.  I  have  now  no  need 
of  human  aid.  God  has  shut  the  mouth  of  the  lions.  The  scare  disappears 
when  you  know  another  is  saying  it  and  that  the  error  is  not  your  own. 

May  God  save  you  from  the  eflPects  of  the  very  sins  you  are  committing 
and  which  you  have  been  and  will  be  the  victim  of  when  the  measure  you 
are  meting  shall  be  measured  to  you.  Pause,  think,  solemnly  and  selfishly 
of  the  cost  to  j'ou.  Love  instead  of  hate  your  friends,  and  enemies  even. 
This  alone  can  make  you  happy  and  draw  down  blessings  infinite. 

Have  I  been  your  friend?  Have  I  taught  you  faithfully  the  way  of 
happiness?  and  rebuked  sternly  that  which  could  turn  you  out  of  that 
way?  If  I  have,  then  I  was  your  friend  and  risked  much  to  do  you  good. 
May  God  govern  your  resolves  to  do  right  from  this  hour  and  strengthen 
you   to   keep   them.     Adieu, 

M.  B.  Gloveh  Eddy. 

In  the  1881  edition  of  Science  and  Health  Mrs.  Eddy  takes 
up  this  conspiracy  case  at  length,  giving  a  careful  and  de- 
tailed explanation  of  it,^  In  her  exposition  she  quotes  this 
letter  as  a  proof  of  the  fact  that  she  was  still  trying  to  reclaim 
Mr.  SpofFord  when  the  conspiracy  was  invented.  Mr.  SpofFord, 
on  the  other  hand,  since  he  had  not  heard  from  Mrs.  Eddy 
for  seventeen  months,  believed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  intended  this 
letter  should  be  found  in  his  mail-box  after  his  disappearance, 
to  avert  suspicion  from  her. 

In  her  exposition  of  the  case  Mrs.  Eddy  explains  it  entirely 
as  the  result  of  demonology  or  mesmerism.  She  implies  that 
it  was  a  conspiracy  hatched  by  Richard  Kennedy  and  Mr. 
SpofFord  to  injure  the  sale  of  the  second  edition  of  her  book, 
which  had  been  out  but  a  few  weeks  when  her  husband  was 
placed  under  arrest: 

The  purpose  of  the  plotters  was  evidently  to  injure  the  reputation 
of  metaphysical  practice,  and  to  embarrass  us  for  money  at  a  time  when 
they   hoped   to   cripple   us   in   the   circulation   of   our   book.     This   is   seen 


Science  and  Health  (1881),  chapter  vi,  pp.  20-33. 


260        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

in  the   fact  that  our   name  was  in  any  way  introduced  in  the  case  when 
we  were  not  implicated  by  the  law  and  by  the  gospel.' 

Mrs.  Eddy  attributed  Mr,  Kennedy's  participation  in  the 
plot  to  the  fact  that  her  suit  against  him  for  the  amount 
of  the  promissory  note  signed  in  Amesbury  in  1870  was  still 
pending.     She  says: 

The  mental  malpractitioners  managed  that  entire  plot;  and  if  the  leading 
demonologist  can  exercise  the  power  over  mind,  and  govern  the  conclusions 
and  acts  of  people  as  he  has  boasted  to  us  that  he  could  do,  he  had  ample 
motives  for  the  exercise  of  his  demonology  from  the  fact  that  a  civil 
suit  was  pending  against  him  for  the  collection  of  a  note  of  one  thousand 
dollars,  which  suit  Mr.  Arens  was  jointly  interested  in.' 

In  her  exposition  of  the  case  Mrs.  Eddy  published  affidavits 
from  Caroline  Fifield  and  Margaret  Dunshee,  in  which  they 
testified  that  Mr.  Eddy  was  instructing  a  class  in  Metaphysics 
in  Boston  Highlands  at  the  hour  when  Sargent  and  Collier 
declared  they  had  seen  him  in  a  freight-yard  in  East  Cambridge. 
She  also  published  the  following  confession  which,  she  said, 
Mr.  Eddy  had  received  from  Collier  a  few  weeks  after  the 
hearing  before  the  Grand  Jui;y : 

Taunton,  Dec.  16,  1878. 
To  Drs.  Asia  G.  Eddy  and  E.  J.  Arnes — feeling  that  you  have  been 
greatly  ingered  by  faulse  charges  and  knowing  their  is  no  truth  in  my 
statement  that  you  attempted  to  hire  James  L.  Sargent  to  kil  Dr.  Spoford 
and  wishing  to  retract  as  far  as  poserble  all  things  I  have  sed  to  your 
ingury,  I  now  say  that  thair  is  no  truth  whatever  in  the  statement  that  I 
saw  you  meet  James  L.  Sargent  at  East  Cambridge  or  any  outher  place 
and  pay  or  offer  to  pay  him  any  money  that  I  never  hurd  a  conversation 
betwene  you  and  Sargent  as  testifyed  to  by  me  whouther  Spoford  has  any- 
thing to  do  with  Sargent  I  do  not  know  all  I  know  is  that  the  story  I  told 
on   the  stand  is  holy   faulse  and  was  goton  up  by  Sargent. 

Geo.  a.  Collieh. 

^  fieience  and  Health    (1881),  chapter  vl,  p.  22. 
•Science  and  Health   (1881)   chapter  vl,  p.  29. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  £61 

This  letter  was  subsequently  reinforced  by  an  affidavit  said 
to  have  been  made  by  Collier  before  a  justice  in  Taunton,  on 
December  17,  1878,  in  which  he  makes  a  similar  declaration. 

The  evidence  on  both  sides  is  of  the  most  anomalous  and 
inconsequential  character  and  reads  like  the  testimony  heard  in 
the  nightmare  of  some  plethoric  judge.  The  witnesses  for  the 
prosecution  were,  with  the  exception  of  Jessie  Macdonald  and 
the  two  detectives,  utterly  worthless  as  sources  of  testimony. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  charge  that  the  plot  was  the  malicious  inven- 
tion of  Mr.  Kennedy  and  Mr.  Spofford  can  be  regarded  only  as 
the  delusion  of  an  unreasonable  and  over-wrought  woman.  The 
only  other  possible  solution  would  advance  Sargent  as  the  in- 
stigator of  the  plot.  If  a  double  blackmailing  enterprise  could 
be  attributed  to  Sargent,  the  tangle  could  be  easily  explained. 
But  this  hypothesis  is  weakened  by  the  fact  that  he  never  asked 
for  or  received  any  money  from  Mr.  Spofford.  And  why  a 
saloon-keeper  from  Sudbury  Street  should  have  gone  so  far  from 
his  familiar  haunts  and  associates,  and  should  have  aspired  to 
play  a  part  in  the  quarrels  of  the  Christian  Scientists,  remains  a 
difficult  question. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

MRS.   EDDY  ADDRESSES   BOSTON   AUDIENCES SHE  IS   TORTURED   BY 

HER  FEAR  OF  MESMERISM ORGANISATION  OF  "  THE  CHURCH 

OF    CHRIST,    SCIENTIST  " WITHDRAWAL    OF    EIGHT    LEADING 

MEMBERS MRS.  EDDy's  RETREAT  FROM  LYNN 

As  early  as  1878,  Mrs.  Eddy  began  to  give  occasional 
lectures  in  a  Baptist  church  on  Shawmut  Avenue,  in  Boston, 
and  in  1879  she  gave  Sunday  afternoon  talks  in  the  Parker 
Fraternity  Building  on  Appleton  Street.  Her  audiences  were 
not  large.  Sometimes,  on  a  fine  afternoon  as  many  as  fifty 
persons  would  be  present,  while  again  the  number  would  fall 
as  low  as  twenty-five.  Mrs.  Eddy  came  up  from  Lynn  on 
Sunday  afternoon,  attended  by  Mr.  Eddy,  and  often  by  several 
of  her  students.  She  usually  wore  a  black  silk  gown  and  a 
hat  when  she  spoke,  used  gold-bowed  spectacles,  and  was  con- 
fident and  at  ease  upon  the  rostrum.  Mr.  Eddy,  dressed  in  a 
black  frock-coat,  acted  as  usher  and  passed  the  collection-plate. 
Mrs.  Eddy  spoke  on  the  curative  aspect  of  her  Science  almost 
entirely,  relating  many  individual  instances  of  the  astonishing 
cures  she  and  her  students  had  performed.  The  religious  ele- 
ment in  her  discussions  was  incidental  and  rather  cold.  She 
never  hinted  at  repentance,  humility,  or  prayer  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  as  essential  to  regeneration.  Moral  reform  came  natu- 
rally as  a  result  of  adopting  Christian  Science.     Mrs.  Eddy 

263 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  263 

possessed  on  the  platform  that  power  of  moving  people  to  a 
state  of  emotional  exaltation  which  had  already  proved  so 
effective  in  her  classroom. 

After  the  lecture  Mrs.  Eddy  always  came  down  from  the 
platform  and  shook  hands  cordially  with  her  audience.  The 
company  usually  separated  into  two  groups,  one  surrounding 
Mr.  Eddy  and  the  other  gathering  about  his  wife.  Mr.  Eddy, 
in  a  low  voice,  would  recommend  the  interested  inquirer  to  join 
one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  classes  and  thus  come  into  a  fuller  under- 
standing of  the  subject.  Occasionally  a  visitor  would  ask 
Mrs.  Eddy  why  she  used  glasses  instead  of  overcoming  the 
defect  in  her  eyesight  by  mind.  This  question  usually  annoyed 
her,  and  on  one  occasion  she  replied  sharply  that  she  "  wore 
glasses  because  of  the  sins  of  the  world,"  probably  meaning  that 
the  belief  in  failing  eyesight  had  become  so  firmly  estabhshed 
throughout  the  ages  that  she  could  not  at  once  overcome  it. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  audiences  were  largely  made  up  of  people  who 
were  Interested  in  some  radical  theory  of  theology  or  medicine. 
Mr.  Arthur  T.  Buswell,  for  instance,  who  afterward  became 
prominent  in  the  Christian  Science  movement,  had  been  em- 
ployed in  the  New  England  Hygiene  Home,  a  water-cure  sana- 
torium at  West  Concord,  Vt.,  and  had  come  to  Boston  to  prac- 
tise hydropathy.^  His  friend,  James  Ackland,  who  attended 
the  lectures  with  him,  was  a  professor  of  phrenology. 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  felt  that  one  of  the  Sunday  afternoon 
visitors  had  become  interested  in  her  lectures,  Mr.  Eddy  mildly 
but  persistently  followed  him  up.     He  used  often  to  drop  in 


1  Mr.  Buswell  had  first  become  interested  in  mind  cure  through  Dr.  John  A. 
Tennev  now  a  physician  at  Number  2  Commonwealth  Avenue,  who  In  turn, 
had  become  interested  in  the  subject  through  Dr.  Evans,  a  pupil  of  Quimby  s. 


264        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

at  Mr.  Buswell's  office  and  lay  before  him  the  material  and 
spiritual  advantages  of  a  course  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  telling  him 
that  it  was  impossible  to  realise  the  wonder  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
teaching  from  her  public  lectures.  He  always  entered  the 
office  quietly,  glancing  back  over  his  shoulder  to  see  whether 
he  were  being  followed,  and  spoke  in  a  very  low  tone,  looking 
nervously  about  him  as  he  talked.  He  explained  that  the 
mesmerists  were  constantly  on  his  trail,  and  that  to  avoid  them 
extreme  caution  was  necessary  on  his  part.  If  he  walked 
with  Mr.  Buswell  on  the  street,  he  slipped  along  as  if  trying 
to  avoid  observation,  and  would  sometimes  suddenly  catch  Bus- 
well's  sleeve  and  pull  him  into  a  doorway,  as  if  he  felt  mesmer- 
ism in  the  air,  telling  him  it  was  very  important  that  they 
should  not  be  seen  together,  as  the  mesmerists  were  always 
shadowing  him,  ready  to  set  to  work  upon  the  minds  of  pros- 
pective students  and  prejudice  them  against  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Buswell  and  his  friend  Ackland,  the  phrenologist,  were 
finally  persuaded  to  go  to  Lynn  and  study  under  Mrs.  Eddy. 
They  both  roomed  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  house,  and  Mr.  Buswell's 
experience  there  was  a  pleasant  one.  Mrs.  Eddy's  fortunes 
were  then  at  a  low  ebb.  There  was  now  a  good  deal  of  feeling 
against  her  in  the  town,  and  her  frequent  differences  with  her 
followers  and  the  scandal  caused  by  the  witchcraft  and  con- 
spiracy cases  had  reduced  the  number  of  her  students.  There 
were  but  three  in  Mr.  Buswell's  class,  and  one  of  these  dropped 
out,  leaving  only  Mr.  Ackland  and  himself  to  complete  the 
course.  Other  students  who  came  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  instruc- 
tion at  about  this  time  were :  Hanover  P.  Smith,  a  young  man 
who  worked  in  his  aunt's  boarding-house  in  Boston  and  who 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  265 

afterward  became  incurably  insane;  Joseph  Morton,  who  was 
a  maker  of  flavoring  extracts  in  Boston,  and  who  was  in- 
terested in  astrology;  and  Edward  A.  Orne. 

Litigation  had  been  a  heavy  drain  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  finan- 
cially. She  and  Mr.  Eddy  let  the  lower  floor  of  their  house, 
occupying,  themselves,  only  the  upstairs  rooms,  and  now  they 
rented  one  of  those.  They  did  their  own  housework,  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  exceedingly  cheerful  and  courageous  about  it.  Mr. 
Buswell  remembers  finding  her  on  her  knees  with  soap  and 
pail  one  afternoon,  scrubbing  her  back  stairs.  When  he  re- 
proved her  for  undertaking  such  heavy  work,  she  laughed  and 
replied  that  it  was  good  for  her  to  stir  about  after  writing 
all  morning,  adding  that  she  could  not  get  good  help,  as  the 
mesmerists  immediately  aff^ected  her  servants.  Mr.  Buswell 
remembers  that  in  her  classroom  she  sometimes  related  how 
once  when  she  was  driving  through  Boston  in  an  open  carriage, 
a  cripple  had  come  up  to  the  carriage,  and  she  had  put  out 
her  hand  and  healed  him.  She  also  told  of  returning  home 
after  several  days'  absence  to  find  her  window  plants  drooping 
and  dying.  She  had  discovered  that  when  she  was  in  the 
house  the  plants  could  live  without  sunlight  or  moisture,  so, 
instead  of  watering  them,  she  put  them  in  the  attic  and  treated 
them  mentally,  after  which  they  were  completely  restored.^ 
Sometimes,  on  the  same  morning  that  she  related  one  of  these 
extravagant  anecdotes,  she  would  tell,  with  apparent  apprecia- 

^  This  incident  may  liave  been  one  of  the  "  floral  demonstrations "  referred 
to  in  a  letter  sent  from   Pleasant  View,   March   21.   1896,  which  says: 

"...  While  Mrs.  Eddy  was  in  a  suburban  town  of  Boston  she  brought 
out  one  apple  blossom  on "  an  apple  tree  in  January  when  the  ground  was 
covered  with  snow.  And  in  Lvnn  demonstrated  in  the  Floral  line  some  such 
small  things.  But  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  never  with  her  in  a  single  instance  of 
these  demonstrations. 

"  Respectfully 

"  Mary  Baker  Eddy." 


me        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

tion,  how  Bronson  Alcott,  after  reading  Science  and  Health, 
had  said  that  no  one  but  a  woman  or  a  fool  could  have  written  it. 

At  this  time  the  skeleton  in  the  house  was  still  Malicious 
Mesmerism.  Ever  since  his  arrest  upon  the  charge  of  con- 
spiracy to  murder,  Mr.  Eddy  had  seemed  stupefied  by  fear, 
and  he  went  about  like  a  man  labouring  under  a  spell.  He 
was  trying  to  teach  a  little,  but  said  that  the  mesmerists  broke 
up  his  classes.  He  had  a  tendency  to  brood  upon  the  few 
things  in  which  he  was  interested  at  all,  and  he  used  to  become 
deeply  despondent,  confiding  to  the  loyal  students  his  fear 
that  the  w^ork  would  be  utterly  broken  down  and  trampled  out. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  nervous  about  her  mail,  and  believed  that 
her  letters  were  intercepted.  When  she  wrote  letters  now,  she 
had  one  of  her  students  take  them  to  some  remote  part  of  the 
town  and  drop  them  into  one  of  the  mail-boxes  farthest  away 
from  her  house.  She  believed  that  the  mesmerists  kept  her 
under  continual  espionage,  and  she  seldom  went  out  of  the 
house  alone.  When  Mr.  Eddy  got  home  after  a  trip  to  Boston, 
ten  miles  distant,  she  would  embrace  him  and  thank  God  that 
he  had  escaped  the  enemy  once  again.  Mrs.  Eddy's  heaviest 
cross  was  that  the  mesmerists  were  apparently  triumphant. 
She  was  greatly  chagrined  by  the  fact  that  Richard  Kennedy 
had  been  able  to  build  up  a  practice  in  Boston,  and  his  pros- 
perity hurt  her  like  a  personal  affront.  He  had  stolen  his 
success,  she  said.  Within  a  year  after  the  conspiracy  trouble, 
Edward  Arens  also  incurred  her  displeasure,  and  she  added 
him  to  the  list  of  mesmerists.  She  kept  photographs  of  Ken- 
nedy, Spofford,  and  Arens  in  her  desk,  Kennedy's  picture 
marked  with  a  black  cross,  and  the  other  two  marked  with  red 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  267 

crosses.  Kennedy  was  still  regarded  as  the  Lucifer  of  mesmer- 
ism and  the  source  of  the  corrupting  influence.  In  the  course 
of  time  he  had  fellows,  but  never  a  rival.  It  was  when  Mrs. 
Eddy  would  become  agitated  in  talking  of  these  three  men 
that  her  students  first  noticed  that  violent  trembling  of  the 
head,  which  was  the  beginning  of  the  palsy  which  afterward 
afflicted  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mesmerism  became  the  dominating  con- 
ception of  her  life,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  parallel  for  such 
a  constant  and  terrifying  sense  of  evil  unless  one  turns  to 
Bunyan  in  the  days  before  his  conversion,  or  to  Martin  Luther 
in  the  monastery  of  Wittenberg,  when  he  lived  under  such  a 
continual  oppression  of  sin  that  the  gates  of  hell  seemed  always 
open  just  under  the  flagstones  as  he  paced  the. cloisters.^  Her 
illnesses,  like  Luther's  earache,  were  purely  the  result  of  a 
consciously  malicious  agency ;  but,  unlike  Luther's,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
depression  never  came  from  a  feeling  of  unworthiness  or  a  sense 
of  sin. 

After  she  left  Richard  Kennedy,  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  for  some 
years  to  have  given  little  thought  to  the  project  which  she  used 
to  discuss  with  him  of  founding  a  new  church.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  even  then  by  "  church  "  she  meant  a  new  faith 
rather  than  an  organised  sect.  In  the  first  edition  of  Science 
and  Health  she  expressed  her  opinion  that  church  organisation 
was  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to  the  highest  spiritual 
development. 

We  have  no  need  of  creeds  and  church  organisation  to  sustain  or  explain 
a  demonstrable  platform,  that  defines  itself  in  healing  the  sick,  and  casting 

»  "  In  the  monastery  of  Wittenberg,  he  constantly  heard  the  Devil  making  a 
noise  in  the  cloisters  ;  and  became  at  last  so  accustomed  to  the  fact,  that  he 
related  that,  on  one  occasion,  having  been  awakened  by  the  sound,  he  perceived 
that  it  was  only  the  Devil,  and  accordingly  went  to  sleep  again.  The  black 
stain  in  the  castle  of  Wartburg  still  marks  the  place  where  he  flung  an  ink- 
bottle  at  the  Devil."  Lecky,  Rationalism  in  Europe. 


268        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

out  error.  The  uselessness  of  drugs,  the  emptiness  of  knowledge  that 
puffeth  up,  and  the  imaginary  laws  of  matter  are  very  apparent  to  those 
who  are  rising  to  the  more  glorious  demonstration  of  their  God-being. 

The  mistake  the  disciples  of  Jesus  made  to  found  religious  organisations 
and  church  rites,  if  indeed  they  did  this,  was  one  the  Master  did  not  make; 
but  the  mistake  church  members  make  to  employ  drugs  to  heal  the  sick, 
was  not  made  by  the  students  of  Jesus.  Christ's  church  was  Truth,  "  I 
am  Truth  and  Life,"  the  temple  for  the  worshippers  of  Truth  is  Spirit 
and  not  matter.     .    .    . 

No  time  was  lost  by  our  Master  in  organisations,  rites,  and  ceremonies, 
or  in  proselyting  for  certain  forms  of  belief.'' 

The  very  fact,  however,  that  Christian  Science  was  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  doctrines  of  any  of  the  established  churches 
must  have  suggested  that  it  should  have  an  organisation  of 
its  own.  A  belief  which  presented  a  new  theory  of  the  Godhead, 
of  sin  and  the  atonement,  which  declared  that  petitions  to  a 
personal  Deity  could  not  obtain  for  man  truth,  life,  or  love,^ 
needed  an  organisation  behind  it  if  it  were  to  be  successfully 
propagated.  Mrs.  Eddy's  most  useful  and  effective  students 
had  been  active  in  church  work  before  they  came  into  Christian 
Science.  They  missed  their  old  church  associations  and  wanted 
a  church  to  work  for.  They  believed  that  their  new  faith  was 
a  revival  of  the  apostolic  method  of  healing,  a  new  growth  from 
the  original  root  of  Christianity,  and  it  was  as  a  religion, 
rather  than  a  philosophy,  that  they  liked  to  regard  it.  While 
most  of  these  students  had  first  allied  themselves  with  Christian 
Science  chiefly  because  they  wished  to  heal  or  to  be  healed, 
a  mere  scheme  of  therapeutics,  even  metaphysical  therapeutics, 
was  too  deficient  in  sentiment  to  hold  them  together  and  fire 
them  with  the  zeal  which  the  cause  demanded.  Mrs.  Eddy 
began  to  realise  this   and  to  see  that   the  time  had  come  to 

*ficience  and  Health   (18751,  pp.  ir.G,  167. 
''Science  and  Health   (1875),  p.   289. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  269 

emphasise  the  more  expressly  religious  features  of  Christian 
Science. 

The  first  Christian  Science  organisation  was  that  formed 
June  8,  1875,  when  eight  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  banded  to- 
gether, calling  themselves  "  the  Christian  Scientists,"  and  pledg- 
ing themselves  to  raise  money  enough  to  have  Mrs.  Eddy  address 
them  every  Sunday.  On  July  4,  1876,  the  students  reorgan- 
ised into  "  The  Christian  Scientists'  Association,"  and  this 
society  still  held  occasional  informal  meetings  when  first  a  church 
organisation  was  talked  of. 

In  1879  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  students  took  steps  to  form  a 
chartered  church  organisation.  They  elected  officers  and  direct- 
ors, and  chose  a  name,  "  The  Church  of  Christ  (Scientist)." 
On  August  6th  they  applied  to  the  State  for  a  charter.  The 
officers  and  directors  were :  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  president ; 
Margaret  J.  Dunshee,  treasurer;  Edward  A.  Orne,  Miss  Dorcas 
B.  Rawson,  Arthur  T.  Buswell,  James  Ackland,  Margaret  J. 
Foley,  Mrs.  Mary  Ruddock,  Oren  Carr,  directors. 

All  proceedings  were  conducted  with  the  greatest  secrecy, 
as  Mrs.  Eddy  felt  that  it  was  imperative  that  the  infant 
church  should  be  hidden  from  the  knowledge  of  the  mesmerists, 
Spofford  and  Kennedy.  When  it  was  necessary  for  the  newly 
elected  officers  and  directors  to  meet  before  a  notary  and  to 
sign  the  agreement  of  incorporation,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a  long 
'.  i  list  of  notaries  looked  up,  and  finally  selected  one  in  Charles- 
\\  town,  a  man  who  was  known  to  Margaret  Dunshee,  and  for 
\  \  whom  she  could  vouch  that  he  had  no  affiliations  with  mesmer- 
ists. The  students  met  at  Mrs.  Dunshee's  house  in  Charles- 
town,  and,  one  by  one,  by  circuitous  routes,  they  went  to  the 


270        LIFE  OF  JVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

notary's  office,  where  the  papers  were  made  out  and  signed. 
This  meeting  of  the  subscribers  to  the  articles  of  incorporation 
occurred  August  15th,  and  the  papers  were  filed  and  a  charter 
issued  August  23,  1879.  The  purpose  of  the  corporation  was 
given  as  "  to  carry  on  and  transact  the  business  necessary  to 
the  worship  of  God,"  and  Boston  was  named  as  the  place 
within  which  it  was  established.  There  were  in  all  twenty-six 
charter  members,  but  by  no  means  all  of  these  were  active  in 
the  work.  The  membership  roll  represented,  like  those  of  most 
new  churches  in  small  towns,  all  who  could  be  persuaded  to  ally 
themselves  with  the  sect. 

For  the  first  sixteen  months  of  its  existence  the  church  had 
no  regular  place  of  meeting,  but  Sunday  services  were  held  at 
the  houses  of  various  members  in  Lynn  and  Boston.  The  Lynn 
meetings  were  usually  held  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  F.  A.  Damon, 
who  was  one  of  the  most  earnest  workers  in  the  new  church.  A 
copy  of  the  secretary's  minutes  of  the  Lynn  meetings  shows 
that,  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  absence,  either  Mrs.  Damon  or  Mrs.  Rice 
usually  conducted  the  service.  These  minutes  are  interesting 
in  that  they  make  one  realise  what  a  small  organisation  the 
Christian  Science  Church  then  was.  Half  a  dozen  members, 
gathered  in  Mrs.  Damon's  parlour  on  Jackson  Street,  consti- 
tuted a  congregation.  The  minutes  show  that  on  one  Sunday 
five  members  were  present;  on  another  four;  on  another  seven, 
etc.  The  Boston  circle  of  Christian  Scientists,  which  met  at 
the  house  of  Mrs,  Clara  Choate,  was  scarcely  larger.  The 
service  itself,  however,  was  very  much  like  the  service  now 
used  in  the  great  church  in  Boston.  The  meeting  opened  with 
silent  prayer  or  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  interpretation  of  the  Lord's 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  271 

Prayer ;  then  Mrs.  Damon  read  from  Science  and  Health,  after 
which  Mrs.  Rice  read  from  the  Scriptures.  The  following 
record  occurs  for  the  meeting  on  September  5,  1880: 

Meeting  opened  by  Mrs.  Damon  in  the  usual  way.  Mrs.  M.  B.  G.  Eddy, 
having  completed  her  summer  vacation,  was  present  and  delivered  a  dis- 
course on  Mesmerism. 

Whole   number   in   attendance,   twenty-two. 

On  the  following  Sunday  the  subject  was  again  Mesmerism. 
Mrs.  Eddy's  resuming  of  her  duties  seems  to  have  been  marked 
by  a  vigorous  return  to  this  subject  and  by  a  marked  increase 
in  the  attendance. 

On  December  12,  1880,  the  Christian  Scientists  began  to 
hold  their  services  in  the  Hawthorne  rooms,  on  Park  Street, 
Boston.  Mrs.  Eddy  usually  preached  and  conducted  the  serv- 
ices, though  occasionally  one  of  her  students  took  her  place, 
and  now  and  again  a  minister  of  some  other  denomination  was 
invited  to  occupy  the  pulpit.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  was 
always  effective  on  the  rostrum,  Mrs.  Eddy  seemed  to  dread 
these  Sunday  services.  The  necessity  for  wearing  spectacles 
embarrassed  her.  When  she  sometimes  wore  glasses  in  her  own 
home,  she  apologised  for  doing  so,  explaining  that  it  was  a 
habit  she  often  rose  above,  but  that  at  times  the  mesmerists 
were  too  strong  for  her.  She  believed  that  the  mesmerists 
set  to  work  upon  her  before  the  hour  of  the  weekly  services, 
and  on  Sunday  morning  her  faithful  students  were  sometimes  ,. 
called  to  her  house  to  treat  her  against  Kennedy,  Spofford,  and 
Arens,  until  she  took  the  train  for  Boston.  Certain  ones  of  the 
students  were  delegated  to  attend  her  from  Lynn  to  Boston 
and  to  occupy  front  seats  in  the  Hawthorne  rooms  for  the 


272        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

purpose  of  treating  her  while  she  spoke.  On  the  way  back 
to  Lynn  the  party  frequently  discussed  the  particular  kind 
of  evil  influence  which  had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  Mrs. 
Eddy  during  the  service.  Already  Mrs.  Eddy  thought  she 
could  tell  which  was  Kennedy's  influence  and  which  was  Spof- 
ford's,  and  she  could  even  liken  their  effect  upon  her  to  the 
operation  of  certain  drugs.  Later  Arens'  malevolence,  too, 
came  to  have  an  aroma  of  its  own,  so  that  when  Mrs.  Eddy  rose 
in  the  morning  she  could  tell  by  the  kind  of  depression  she 
experienced  which  of  the  three  was  to  be  her  tormentor  for 
the  day.  At  times  she  was  convinced  that  Kennedy  and  Spof- 
f ord  were  both  annoying  her,  and  not  infrequently  she  declared 
that  the  three  mesmerists  had  all  set  upon  her  at  once. 

During  the  last  few  years  the  attitude  of  the  Lynn  public 
toward  Mrs.  Eddy  had  changed  from  one  of  amused  indiff'erence 
to  one  of  silent  hostility.  Mrs.  Eddy  attributed  this  change 
entirely  to  Kennedy  and  Spoff^ord,  and  despairing  of  ever  bring- 
ing her  work  to  a  successful  issue  in  Lynn,  she  began  planning 
to  take  Christian  Science  up  bodily  and  flee  with  it  to  some 
place  far  removed  from  mesmerists.  She  decided  to  send  Arthur 
Buswell  to  some  other  part  of  the  country,  there  to  seek  out 
a  spot  for  the  planting  of  her  church.  Where  to  send  him 
was  the  question.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Mr.  Buswell  got  out  a 
map  of  the  United  States  and  studied  it  together.  But,  how- 
ever topical  the  map,  there  were  no  red  or  green  lines  to  indi- 
cate where  mesmerism  ran  light  or  heavy,  and  they  realised 
that  the  venture  would  be  largely  a  leap  in  the  dark.  They 
finally  selected  Cincinnati,  attracted,  Mr.  Buswell  says,  by  its 
central  location  and  by  the  number  of  railroads  which  seemed, 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  273 

on  the  map,  to  pass  through  that  city.  Mr.  Buswell  was,  ac- 
cordingly, despatched,  at  his  own  expense,  to  make  straight 
the  path  in  Cincinnati,  with  the  understanding  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
would  follow  him  in  six  weeks.*'  She  did  not  go,  however,  and 
was  greatly  annoyed  when  Mr.  Buswell  ran  out  of  money 
and  wrote  to  her  for  help.  She  replied  that  it  was  very  evident 
to  her  that  mesmeric  influences  were  abroad  in  Cincinnati  as 
well  as  in  Lynn,  and  had  inspired  him  with  disloyal  sentiments. 
In  the  meantime  Mrs.  Eddy's  forerunners  in  Boston  had  been 
meeting  with  some  success.  Mrs.  Clara  Choate  and  her  hus- 
band had  taken  a  house  on  Shawmut  Avenue  and  were  intro- 
ducing the  Christian  Science  treatment  of  disease.  Edward  J. 
Arens  came  to  Boston  immediately  after  the  unfortunate  con- 
spiracy tangle,  and  fell  to  work  with  industry  and  courage. 
He  took  an  office  at  32  Upton  Street  and  began  to  do  missionary 
work  among  the  marketmen  down  about  Faneuil  Hall,  treating 
a  bronchial  cold  here  and  a  case  of  rheumatism  there.  He 
spoke  occasionally  in  a  hall  in  Charlestown,  lecturing  on  Meta- 
physical Healing,  and  charging  an  admission  fee  of  ten  cents. 
Among  his  first  patrons  was  James  C.  Howard,  a  bookkeeper 
who  came  to  arrange  for  treatments  for  his  invalid  wife.  This 
was  before  Mrs.  Eddy  had  entirely  renounced  Mr.  Arens,  and 
it  was  in  his  office  that  Mr.  Howard  first  met  Mrs.  Eddy.  He 
became  interested  in  Christian  Science  and  made  one  of  a  class 
of  two  which  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  at  Mrs.  Choate's  house.  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  then  in  need  of  practitioners,  and  she  urgently  needed 
an  active  man  of  affairs  to  succeed  ]\Ir.  Arens,  toward  whom 


8  At  about  the  same  time  that  Mrs.  Eddy  sent  Mr.  BusweU  to  Cincinnati  to 
prepare  a  way  for  her,  she  sent  Joseph  Morton  to  New  York  on  the  same 
mission,  promisinf?  to  follow  later.  Ho  opened  an  office  on  Ninth  Street,  but, 
as  he  found   no   patients,   he  soon   returned  to  Boston. 


^74        LIFE  OF  JVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

she  had  begun  to  feel  deep  resentment.  She  was  also  desirous 
of  letting  the  lower  floor  of  her  Broad  Street  house,  which  had 
been  tenantless  for  some  time,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  had 
tried  very  hard  to  rent  it.  In  fact,  Mrs.  Eddy's  differences 
with  her  tenants,  servants,  and  students  had  created  a  general 
impression  in  Lynn  that  life  at  Number  8  Broad  Street  was 
difficult  and  complicated.  Mr.  Howard,  when  he  moved  there 
with  his  wife  and  children,  certainly  found  it  so.  The  Eddys 
were  in  such  perpetual  terror  of  mesmerism  that  they  could 
give  very  little  attention  to  anything  else.  They  felt  that  the 
sentiment  toward  them  in  Lynn  had  changed,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
so  anxious  and  nervous  that  she  easily  gave  way  to  petulance 
and  anger.  Mr.  Howard  and  Mr.  Eddy  were  indefatigable 
in  their  efforts  to  please  her,  but  whatever  they  did,  it  usually 
proved  to  be  the  wrong  thing.  She  had  lost  all  patience  with 
Mr.  Eddy's  slowness  and  had  begun  to  exhibit  annoyance  at 
his  somewhat  rustic  manner  and- appearance.  Mr.  Eddy  had 
never  been  a  particularly  efficient  man,  and  now  his  fear  of 
mesmerists  kept  him  in  a  semi-somnambulant  condition.  He 
sometimes  became  deeply  discouraged  in  his  efforts  to  help  his 
wife,  and  once  bitterly  confided  to  Mrs.  Rice  that  he  did  not 
believe  God  Almighty  could  please  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Howard  was  an  alert,  adaptable  young  man  who  made 
himself  useful  in  a  great  many  ways.  He  took  charge  of  the 
sale  of  the  third  edition  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  often  acted  as 
her  private  secretary,  and  played  the  cornet  at  the  Sunday 
services  in  Hawthorne  Hall.  Mrs.  Eddy  at  first  seemed  fond 
of  him  and  seemed  to  enjoy  his  musical  accomplishment.  But 
she  soon  tired  of  him  as  she  had  tired  of  so  many  others,  and 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  2T5 

grew  so  exacting  that  when  he  went  out  to  do  her  errands  he 
found  it  expedient  to  take  down  her  instructions  in  writing,  so 
that  if,  by  the  time  he  returned,  she  had  changed  her  mind 
as  to  what  she  wanted  done,  he  would  have  his  notes  to  justify 
himself.  When  Mr.  Howard  left  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  in  Octo- 
ber, 1881,  six  months  after  he  had  moved  into  it,  he  had  de- 
cided to  leave  the  Church  as  well. 

Mr.  Howard  was  not  the  only  Christian  Scientist  who  came 
to  this  decision.  Discouragement  and  discontent  had  been 
growing  among  Mrs.  Eddy's  oldest  and  most  devout  followers. 
For  a  long  while  they  said  nothing  to  each  other,  and  each 
bore  his  disappointment  and  disillusionment  as  best  he  could. 
They  believed  firmly  in  the  principles  of  Christian  Science  and 
hesitated  to  do  anything  which  might  injure  the  Church,  but 
they  felt  that  no  good,  either  to  her  or  to  themselves,  could 
come  from  their  further  association  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mr. 
Howard,  when  he  went  to  explain  his  position  to  Mrs.  Rice 
before  he  took  the  final  step,  found,  to  his  amazement,  that 
both  she  and  her  sister.  Miss  Rawson,  felt  that  they  had  come 
to  the  end  of  their  endurance  and  could  follow  Mrs.  Eddy  no 
further.  Five  others  of  the  leading  women  of  the  Church 
confessed  that  they  were  discouraged  and  dissatisfied.  They 
were  tired  of  being  dragged  as  witnesses  into  lawsuits  which 
they  believed  were  unwise,  and  which  they  knew  brought  dis- 
credit upon  the  Church  and,  discouraged  by  the  outbursts  of 
rage  which  Mrs.  Eddy  apparently  made  no  effort  to  control, 
and  which  they  believed  helped  to  bring  on  the  violent  illnesses 
for  which  they  were  perpetually  called  to  treat  her.  Above 
all,  they  were  tired  of  Malicious  Mesmerism.     Several  of  her 


276        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

students  really  believed  that  this  subject  had  become  a  monc- 
mania  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  Christian  Science  seemed,  for  the  time, 
to  have  been  superseded,  and  Demonology  was  the  living  and 
important  issue.  After  earnest  discussion  and  consultation, 
eight  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  most  prominent  students  agreed  to 
withdraw  from  the  Church  together.  They  held  a  meeting 
and  drew  up  a  memorial  which  each  of  them  signed,  and 
of  which  each  preserved  a  copy.  This  resolution  read  as 
follows : 

We,  the  undersigned,  while  we  acknowledge  and  appreciate  the  under- 
standing of  Truth  imparted  to  us  by  our  Teacher,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy, 
led  by  Divine  Intelligence  to  perceive  with  sorrow  that  departure  from  the 
straight  and  narrow  road  (which  alone  leads  to  growth  of  Christ-like 
virtues)  made  manifest  by  frequent  ebullitions  of  temper,  love  of  money, 
and  the  appearance  of  hj'pocrisy,  cannot  longer  submit  to  such  Leadership; 
therefore,  without  aught  of  hatred,  revenge  or  petty  spite  in  our  hearts, 
from  a  sense  of  duty  alone,  to  her,  the  Cause,  and  ourselves,  do  most 
respectfully  withdraw  our  names  from  the  Christian  Science  Association 
and  Church  of  Christ   (Scientist). 

S.   Louise   Durant, 
Margaret  J.  Dunshee, 
Dorcas  B.  Rawson, 
Elizabeth   G.   Stuart, 
Jane    L.    Straw, 
Anna  B.  Newman, 
James   C.    Howard, 
Miranda  R.  Rice. 
21st  October,  1881. 

On  the  night  of  October  21st  this  memorial  was  read  aloud 
by  Mrs.  F.  A.  Damon  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the  Christian 
Scientists'  Association.  This  meeting,  which  was  a  heated 
session,  was  prolonged  until  after  midnight.  The  eight  resig- 
nations were  a  complete  surprise  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  ex- 
pressed her  indignation  at  length,  declaring  that  the  resigning 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  277 

members  were  all  the  victims  of  mesmerism.  The  next  day 
she  made  an  effort  to  see  in  person  several  of  the  signers  of 
the  memorial,  but  they  kept  well  within  their  doors  and  refused 
her  admittance.  Mr.  Howard  had  been  Mrs.  Eddy's  business 
representative;  Mrs.  Dunshee,  Mrs.  Newman,  and  Mrs.  Stuart 
were  all  able  and  intelligent  women,  and  their  membership  had 
been  a  source  of  great  pride  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mrs.  Rice  and 
Miss  Rawson  had  been  her  friends  and  followers  for  more  than 
eleven  years,  and  were  the  only  ones  of  her  early  students  who 
had  been  faithful  until  the  founding  of  the  Church.  They  had 
believed  in  her  sincerely,  and  had  served  her,  heart  and  soul. 
Because  of  Mrs.  Rice's  robust  health,  Mrs.  Eddy  liked  to  have 
her  much  about  her.  Mrs.  Rice  had  been  more  successful  than 
any  other  student  in  treating  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  illnesses,  and 
a  messenger  from  Broad  Street  often  summoned  her  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  side  in  the  hours  after  midnight.  When  Mr.  Eddy 
was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  conspiracy  and  thrown  into  jail, 
it  was  Mrs.  Rice  who  persuaded  her  husband  to  furnish  bail. 
On  the  morning  after  her  resignation  from  the  Church,  Mrs. 
Rice  saw  Mrs.  Eddy  a  moment  from  her  window,  but  from 
that  day  to  this  she  has  never  seen  her  again. 

Instead  of  accepting  the  eight  resignations,  Mrs.  Eddy  noti- 
fied the  resigning  members  that  they  were  liable  to  expulsion, 
and  summoned  them  to  meet  the  Church  on  October  29th.  They 
did  not  appear,  but  at  this  meeting  Mrs.  F.  A.  Damon,  at 
whose  house  the  church  services  were  formerly  held,  and  Miss 
A.  A.  Draper,  secretary  of  the  Church,  also  resigned.  In 
their  letters  of  resignation  they  stated  that  they  "  could  no 
longer  entertain   the  subject  of  Mesmerism  which  had  lately 


278        LIFE  OF  IVIARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

been  made  uppermost  in  the  meetings  and  in  Mrs.  Eddj's  talks." 
Edward  A.  Orne  had  quietly  left  the  Church  some  time  before, 
and  Mr.  Buswcll  was  in  Cincinnati.  There  were  scarcely  a 
dozen  students  left  to  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  could  turn  in  an  hour 
of  need.  During  the  next  few  months  she  worked  incessantly 
to  rally  her  shattered  ranks,  and  on  February  3,  1882,  the 
few  remaining  members  of  the  Christian  Scientists*  Association 
published  in  the  'Lynn  Union  resolutions  ^  censuring  the  act  of 
the  seceding  members,  stamping  their  charges  as  untrue,  and 
indorsing  Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  extent  of  affirming  her  "  the  chosen 
messenger  of  God  to  the  nations,"  and  declaring  that  "  unless 
we  hear  Her  voice  we  do  not  hear  His  voice." 

Ardent  as  these  resolutions  were,  they  were  the  swan-song 
of  the  movement  in  Lynn,  and  to  this  day  the  Christian  Science 
Church  there  has  never  prospered.     Its  members  declare  that 

'  The  following  Is  a   copy  of  these  resolutions  : 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  Christian  Scientist  association  the  following  resolu- 
tions  were   unanimously   adopted  : 

"  Resolved,  That  we'  the  members  of  the  Christian  Scientist  association,  do 
herein  express  to  our  beloved  teacher,  and  acknowledged  leader.  Mary  B. 
Glover  Eddy,  our  sincere  and  heartfelt  thanks  and  gratitude  for  her  earnest 
labours  in  behalf  of  this  association,  by  her  watchfulness  of  its  interest,  and 
persistent  efforts  to  maintain  the  highest  rule  of  Christian  love  among  its 
members. 

"  Resolved,  That  while  she  has  had  little  or  no  help,  except  from  God,  in  the 
introduction  to  this  age  of  materiality  of  her  book.  Science  and  Health,  and 
the  carrying  forward  of  the  Christian  principles  it  teaches  and  explains,  she 
has  been  unremitting  in  her  faithfulness  to  her  God-appointed  work,  and  we 
do  understand  her  to  be  the  chosen  messenger  of  God  to  bear  his  truth  to  the 
nations,  and  unless  we  hear  '  Her  Voice,'  we  do  not  hear  '  His  Voice.' 

"  Resolved,  That  while  many  and  continued  attempts  are  made  by  the  mal- 
practise,  as  referred  to  in  the  book.  Science  and  Health,  to  hinder  and  stop 
the  advance  of  Christian  science,  it  has  with  her  leadership  attained  a  success 
that  calls  out  the  truest  gratitude  of  her  students,  and  when  understood,  by 
all    humanity. 

"Resolved.  That  the  charges  made  to  her  in  a  letter,  signed  by  J.  C.  Howard, 
M.  R.  Rice.  D.  B.  Rawson.  and  five  others,  of  hypocrisy,  ebullitions  of  temper, 
and  love  of  money,  are  utterly  false,  and  the  cowardice  of  the  signers  in  re- 
fusing to  meet  her  and  siistain  or  explain  said  charges,  be  treated  with  the 
righteous  indignation  it  justly  deserves.  That  while  we  deplore  such  wicked- 
ness and  abuse  of  her  who  has  befriended  them  in  their  need,  and  when  wrong, 
met  them  with  honest,  open  rebuke,  we  look  with  admiration  and  reverence 
upon  her  Chiist-like  example  of  meekness  and  charity,  and  will,  in  future, 
more  faithfully  follow  and  obey  her  divine  instructions,  knowing  that  in  so 
doing  we  offer  the  highest  testimonial  of  our  appreciation  of  her  Christian 
leadership. 

"Resolved.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  presented  to  our  teacher  and 
leader  Mary  B.  Glover  Eddy,  and  a  copy  be  placed  on  the  records  of  this 
Chnstian    Scientist   association." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  £79 

there  is  an  error  in  belief  there  regarding  Mrs.  Eddy  which 
they  find  hard  to  overcome. 

Mrs.  Eddy  at  last  despaired  of  conquering  the  prejudice 
that  had  arisen  in  Lynn  against  her  and  her  religion.  While 
she  attributed  this  to  the  influence  of  the  mesmerists,  her 
seceding  students  attributed  it  to  the  unpleasant  notoriety 
given  her  by  her  lawsuits  and  her  quarrels  with  her  followers. 
Whether  these  lawsuits  were  really  discreditable  to  Mrs,  Eddy 
or  not,  they  were  generally  considered  to  be  so  in  Lynn,  People 
did  not  stop  to  discover  whether  they  arose  on  reasonable 
grounds.  The  general  public  caught  only  the  obvious  paradox 
that  here  were  a  group  of  people  teaching  a  new  religion  and 
professing  to  overcome  sin  and  bodily  disease  through  their 
superior  realisation  of  Divine  love,  and  that  they  were  con- 
stantly quarrelling  and  bickering  among  themselves,  accusing 
each  other  of  fraud,  dishonesty,  witchcraft,  bad  temper,  greed 
of  money,  hypocrisy,  and  finally  of  a  conspiracy  to  murder. 
Unquestionably  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  the  accepted  messenger  of  God, 
was  more  severely  criticised  for  her  part  in  these  altercations 
than  if  she  had  appeared  before  the  courts  merely  as  a  citizen 
of  Lynn,  and  this  criticism  had  much  to  do  with  the  cloud 
of  suspicion  and  distrust  which  hung  over  the  Church  when, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  winter  of  1882,  Mrs.  Eddy  left  Lynn 
forever  behind  her  and  went  to  Boston. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  departure  from  Lynn  was  distinctly  in  the 
nature  of  a  retreat.  A  neutral  field  had  become  pronouncedly 
hostile ;  her  oldest  friends  and  most  ardent  workers  had  left 
her.  Science  and  Health  had  been  through  three  editions,  but 
less   than    four   thousand   copies    of   the   book   had   been   sold. 


280  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

Her  following  was  now,  for  the  most  part,  made  up  of  indiffer- 
ent material — discontented  women,  and  young  men  who  had  not 
succeeded  in  finding  their  place  in  the  world,  or  who  had  drifted 
away  from  other  professions.  The  Christian  Science  Church 
was  a  struggling  organisation  with  considerably  less  than  fifty 
members ;  its  history  had  been  one  of  dissension,  and  its  good 
standing  was  all  to  make — and  Mrs.  Eddy  was  then  sixty-one 
years  old. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE      MASSACHUSETTS      METAPHYSICAL      COLLEGE      ORGANISED 

DEATH    OF    ASA    GILBERT    EDDY MRS.    EDDy's    BELIEF    THAT 

HE    WAS    MENTALLY    ASSASSINATED ^ENTRANCE    OF    CALVIN 

A.    FRYE 

The  organisation  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  In  August, 
1879,  seems  to  have  suggested  the  organisation  of  another 
institution,  which,  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Science  move- 
ment, is  second  in  importance  only  to  the  Church  itself.  The 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  was  chartered  January  31, 
1881,  and  between  that  date  and  1889,  when  it  closed,  about 
four  thousand  persons  studied  Christian  Science  in  this  insti- 
tution, and  to-day  many  practising  healers  have  the  degree  of 
C.S.B.,  C.S.D.,  or  D.S.D.  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  college. 

The  college  was  organised  something  more  than  a  year 
before  Mrs.  Eddy  removed  permanently  to  Boston,  and  was, 
in  the  beginning,  one  of  the  experiments  by  which  she  strove 
to  rehabilitate  herself  In  Lynn.  Its  charter  was  Issued  under 
an  act  passed  in  1874,^  an  act  so  loose  in  Its  requirements, 
resulting  in  the  chartering  of  so  many  dubious  Institutions 
and  the  granting  of  so  many  misleading  diplomas,  that,  in  1883, 

1  Acts  and  Rei?olves  passed  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  1874. 
Chanter  375,  Section  2  :  "  Such  association  may  be  entered  Into  for  any  educa- 
tional, charitable,  benpvolent,  or  rellsjious  purpose  ;  for  the  prosecution  of  any 
antiquarian,  historical,  literary,  scientific,  medical,  artistic,  monumental,  or 
musical  purposes,"  etc.,  etc.  This  Chapter  375  was  later  merged  Into  Chapter 
115  of  the  Public  Statutes. 

281 


282        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

medical  institutions  chartered  under  this  act  were  prohibited 
from  conferring  degrees.  The  purpose  of  the  Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College,  as  stated  in  the  articles  of  agreement, 
was :  "  To  teach  pathology,  ontology,  therapeutics,  moral  sci- 
ence, metaphysics,  and  their  application  to  the  treatment  of 
diseases."  The  signers  to  the  articles  of  agreement  were: 
Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  president ;  James  C.  Howard,  treasurer ; 
Charles  J.  Eastman,  M.D.,  Edgar  F.  Woodbury,  James  Wiley, 
William  F.  Walker,  and  Samuel  P.  Bancroft,  directors ;  all 
students  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  except  Charles  J.  Eastman,  who  had 
been  a  pupil  in  the  little  "  dame's  school  "  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
taught  at  Tilton  for  a  few  months  during  her  first  widow- 
hood, and  who  at  this  time  had  a  doubtful  medical  practice  in 
Boston. 

The  name  "  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  "  is  some- 
what misleading.  During  the  nine  years  of  its  existence  this 
institution  never  had  a  building  of  its  own,  or  any  other  seat 
than  Mrs.  Eddy's  parlour,  and,  with  very  incidental  exceptions, 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  during  all  this  time,  constituted  the  entire 
faculty.^  In  short,  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College, 
subsequently  of  such  wide  fame  among  Christian  Scientists, 
was  simply  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  its  seat  was  wherever  she  happened 
to  be.  To  call  it  an  institution  was  a  very  literal  application 
of  the  boast  of  the  old  Williams  alumni  that  Mark  Hopkins  on 
one  end  of  a  saw-log  and  a  student  on  the  other  would  make  a 
college. 

The  organisation  of  the  college  in  1881  in  no  way  changed 
Mrs.    Eddy's    manner    of   instruction.     Her   new   letter-heads, 

2  Mrs.  Eddy  states  that  hor  husband  taught  two  terms  in  her  college,  that 
her  adopted  son.  E.  J.  Foster  Eddy,  taught  one  term,  and  that  Erastus  N.  Bates 
taught  one  class. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  283 

indeed,  told  the  public  that  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College  was  located  at  Number  8  Broad  Street,  Lynn,  but  the 
name  was  the  only  thing  which  was  new.  Classes  of  from  two 
to  five  students  continued  to  meet  on  the  second  floor  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  house,  as  before,  and  she  gave  but  one  course  of  study : 
twelve  lessons  in  mental  healing,  very  similar  to  those  she  had 
given  to  MissRawson,  Mrs.  Rice,  and  their  fellow-students 
eleven  years  before^— except  that  "  manipulation  "  was  now  dis- 
countenanced, and  denunciation  of  mesmerism  was  a  prominent 
feature  of  the  lectures.  The  tuition  fee  was  still  three  hundred 
dollars,  the  price  which  Mrs.  Eddy  says  she  fixed  under  Divine 
guidance ;  although,  in  many  instances  where  the  student  was 
unable  to  pay  that  amount,  she  took  one  hundred  dollars  instead. 

When  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Eddy  moved  to  Boston  in  the  early 
spring  of  1882,  they  soon  took  a  house  at  569  Columbus  Avenue, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  first  permanent  home  in  Boston,  and  on  the  door 
placed  a  large  silver  plate  bearing  the  inscription,  "  Massa- 
chusetts Metaphysical  College."  At  about  this  time  Mr. 
Eddy's  health  began  to  decline,  and  both  he  and  his  wife  believed 
that  he  was  suffering  from  the  adverse  mental  treatments  of 
Edward  J.  Arens. 

After  the  charge  of  conspiracy  to  murder,  brought  in  1878, 
a  coldness  developed  between  Mr.  Arens  and  the  Eddys.  He 
came  to  Boston,  and  began  to  exercise  some  originality  in  his 
practice  and  teaching,  which  was,  of  course,  very  obnoxious 
to  Mrs.  Eddy.  In  1881  Mr.  Arens  published  a  pamphlet  en- 
titled Theology,  or  the  Understanding  of  God  as  Applied  to 
Healing  the  Sick.  In  this  pamphlet  Mr,  Arens  quoted  ex- 
tensively  from  Science   and  Health,   using  the   text   of  Mrs. 


284        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Eddy's  work  where  it  answered  his  purpose,  but  substituting 
his  own  ideas  for  many  of  her  statements  which  he  believed 
were  extreme  or  untenable.  In  his  preface  he  announced  that 
he  made  no  claim  to  the  authorship  of  the  doctrine  which  he 
advanced,  stating  that  it  had  been  practised  by  Jesus  and  the 
apostles,  by  the  secret  association  of  priests  known  as  the 
Gottesfreunde  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  in  the  nineteenth 
century  by  P.  P.  Quimby  of  Belfast,  Me.  He  added  that  he 
had  made  use  of  "  some  thoughts  contained  in  a  work  by  Eddy.'* 
The  third  edition  of  Science  and  Health  appeared  a  few  months 
later,  containing  a  preface  signed  by  Asa  G.  Eddy,  which 
scathingly  denounced  Arens  as  a  plagiarist,  and  paid  the  follow- 
ing tribute  to  Mrs.  Eddy: 

"  Mrs.  Eddy's  works  are  the  outgrowths  of  her  life.  I  never 
knew  so  unselfish  an  individual,  or  one  so  tireless  in  what  she 
considers  her  duty.  It  would  require  ages  and  God's  mercy 
to  make  the  ignorant  hypocrite  who  published  that  pamphlet 
originate  its  contents.  His  pratings  are  coloured  by  his  char- 
acter, they  cannot  impart  the  hue  of  ethics,  but  leave  his  own 
impress  on  what  he  takes.  He  knows  less  of  metaphysics  than 
any  decently  honest  man." 

From  this  time  on,  the  Eddys  credited  Mr.  Arens  with  the 
same  malicious  intervention  in  their  affairs  with  which  they 
had  already  charged  Mr.  Kennedy  and  Mr.  SpoflPord.  As  has 
been  mentioned  before,  Mrs.  Eddy  believed  that  the  mesmeric 
influence  of  each  of  these  three  men  affected  her  differently,  and 
that  each  operated  upon  her  in  a  manner  analogous  to  the 
effect  of  certain  harmful  drugs.  The  influence  of  Mr.  Arens, 
she  insisted,  affected  her  like  arsenic.      Hence,  when  Mr.  Eddy's 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  285 

health  began  to  fail,  she  diagnosed  his  case  as  the  result  of 
Mr.  Arens'  mesmeric  influence,  or,  as  she  expressed  it,  "  arsenical 
poison,  mentally  administered."  To  say  that  Mr.  Eddy  be- 
lieved in  malicious  mesmerism  more  sincerely  than  did  his  wife 
would  perhaps  be  incorrect ;  but  his  was  the  more  passive  nature, 
and  he  had  less  power  of  reaction  and  recuperation.  He  was 
convinced  that  he  was  being  slowly  poisoned,  and  daily  treated 
himself  against  Mr.  Arens  and  his  alliterative  chemical  equiva- 
lent. 

When  Mr.  Eddy  continued  to  grow  steadily  worse,  Mrs.  Eddy 
became  alarmed,  and  sent  for  a  regular  physician.  She  called 
Dr.  Rufus  K.  Noyes,  then  of  Lynn,  a  graduate  of  the  Dart- 
mouth Medical  School,  and  who  has  now  for  many  years  been 
a  physician  in  Boston.  Dr.  Noyes  found  Mr.  Eddy's  case  very 
simple,  and  told  Mrs.  Eddy  that  her  husband  was  suffering 
from  a  common  and  very  well-defined  disease  of  the  heart,  and 
that  he  might  die  at  any  moment.  He  came  to  see  Mr.  Eddy 
twice  after  this,  gave  him  advice  as  to  diet,  hygiene,  and  rest, 
and  suggested  the  usual  tonics  for  the  heart  and  general 
system. 

Mr.  Eddy's  death  occurred  on  the  morning  of  Saturday, 
June  3d,  some  hours  before  daybreak,  and  almost  immediately 
Mrs.  Eddy  telegraphed  Dr.  Noyes  to  come  up  from  Lynn  and 
perform  an  autopsy.^  The  autopsy  was  private,  and  was 
conducted  at  the  widoAv's  request.  Dr.  Noyes  found  that  death 
had  resulted  from  an  organic  disease  of  the  heart,  the  aortic 

'  Only  the  year  before,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  expressed  herself  strongly  against 
post-mortem  examinations  :  "  A  metaphysician  never  gives  medicine,  recommends 
or  trusts  in  hygiene,  or  believes  in  the  ocular  or  the  post-mortem  examination 
of  patients."     Science  and  Health    (1881),  Vol.   I.,   p.   260. 

"  Many  a  hopeless  case  of  disease  is  induced  bv  a  single  post-mortem  exami- 
nation."    Science  and  Health   (1881),  Vol.   I.,  p.   163. 


286        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

valve  being  destroyed  and  the  surrounding  tissues  infiltrated 
with  calcareous   matter. 

It  is  necessary  to  remember  that,  fantastic  as  the  theory  of 
poisoning  by  mental  suggestion  may  sound,  Mrs.  Eddy  thor- 
oughly believed  in  it,  and  she  considered  her  husband's  death 
absolute  proof  of  the  power  of  malicious  mesmerism  to  destroy 
life.  Charles  J.  Eastman,  who  attended  Mr.  Eddy  just  before 
his  death,  agreed  with  Mrs.  Eddy  that  the  symptoms  were 
those  of  arsenical  poisoning,  and  she  doubtless  thought  that 
the  autopsy  would  corroborate  this  opinion.  After  the  autopsy 
she  still  clung  to  her  conviction,  and,  although  Dr.  Noyes 
actually  took  Mr.  Eddy's  heart  into  the  room  where  she  was 
and  pointed  out  to  her  its  defects,  she  still  maintained  that  her 
husband  had  died  from  mental  arsenic.  On  Monday  she  gave 
out  the  following  interview :  ^ 

My  husband's  death  was  caused  by  malicious  mesmerism.  Dr.  C.  J. 
Eastman,  who  attended  the  case  after  it  had  taken  an  alarming  turn, 
declares  the  symptoms  to  be  the  same  as  those  of  arsenical  poisoning. 
On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Rufus  K.  Noyes,  late  of  the  City  Hospital,  who 
held  an  autopsy  over  the  body  to-day,  afiBrms  that  the  corpse  is  free  from 
all  material  poison,  although  Dr.  Eastman  still  holds  to  his  original  belief. 
I  know  it  was  poison  that  killed  him,  not  material  poison,  but  mesmeric 
poison.  My  husband  was  in  uniform  health,  and  but  seldom  complained 
of  any  kind  of  ailment.  During  his  brief  illness,  just  preceding  his 
death,  his  continual  cry  was,  "  Only  relieve  me  of  this  continual  suggestion, 
through  the  mind,  of  poison,  and  I  will  recover."  It  is  well  known  that 
by  constantly  dwelling  upon  any  subject  in  thought  finally  comes  the 
poison  of  belief  through  the  whole  system.  ...  I  never  saw  a  more 
self-possessed  man  than  dear  Dr.  Eddy  was.  He  said  to  Dr.  Eastman, 
when  he  was  finally  called  to  attend  him :  "  My  case  is  nothing  that  I 
cannot  attend  to  myself,  although  to  me  it  acts  the  same  as  poison  and 
seems  to  pervade  ray  whole  system  just  as  that  would." 

This  is  not  the  first  case  known  of  where  death  has  occurred  from 
what    appeared    to    be    poison,    and    was    so    declared    by    the    attending 

*  Boston   Post,  .Tunc  5,   1882. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  287 

physician,  but  in  which  the  body,  on  being  thoroughly  examined  by  an 
autopsy,  was  shown  to  possess  no  signs  of  material  poison.  There  was 
such  a  case  in  New  York.  Every  one  at  first  declared  poison  to  have  been 
the  cause  of  death,  as  the  symptoms  were  all  there;  but  an  autopsy 
contradicted  the  belief,  and  it  was  shown  that  the  victim  had  had  no 
opportunity  for  procuring  poison.  I  afterwards  learned  that  she  had  been 
very  active  in  advocating  the  merits  of  our  college.  Oh,  isn't  it  terrible, 
that  this  fiend  of  malpractice  is  in  the  land !  The  only  remedy  that  is 
effectual  in  meeting  this  terrible  power  possessed  by  the  evil-minded  is 
to  counteract  it  by  the  same  method  that  I  use  in  counteracting  poison. 
They  require  the  same  remedy.  Circumstances  debarred  me  from  taking 
hold  of  my  husband's  case.  He  declared  himself  perfectly  capable  of 
carrying  himself  through,  and  I  was  so  entirely  absorbed  in  business  that 
I  permitted  him  to  try,  and  when  I  awakened  to  the  danger  it  was  too 
late.  I  have  cured  worse  cases  before,  but  took  hold  of  them  in  time. 
I  don't  think  that  Dr.  Carpenter  °  had  anything  to  do  with  my  husband's 
death,  but  I  do  believe  it  was  the  rejected  students^ — students  who  were 
turned  away  from  our  college  because  of  their  unworthiness  and  im- 
morality. To-day  I  sent  for  one  of  the  students  whom  my  husband  had 
helijed  liberally,  and  given  money,  not  knowing  how  unworthy  he  was. 
I  wished  him  to  come,  that  I  might  prove  to  him  how,  by  metaphysics, 
I  could  show  the  cause  of  my  husband's  death.  He  was  as  pale  as  a 
ghost  when  he  came  to  the  door,  and  refused  to  enter,  or  to  believe  that  I 
knew  what  caused  his  death.  Within  half  an  hour  after  he  left,  I  felt 
the  same  attack  that  my  husband  felt — the  same  that  caused  his  death. 
I  instantly  gave  myself  the  same  treatment  that  I  would  use  in  a  case 
of  arsenical  poisoning,  and  so  I  recovered,  just  the  same  as  I  could  have 
caused  my  husband  to  recover  had  I  taken  the  case  in  time.  After  a 
certain  amount  of  mesmeric  poison  has  been  administered  it  cannot  be 
averted.  No  power  of  mind  can  resist  it.  It  must  be  met  with  resistive 
action  of  the  mind  at  the  start,  which  will  counteract  it.  We  all  know 
that  disease  of  any  kind  cannot  reach  the  body  except  through  the  mind, 
and  that  if  the  mind  is  cured  the  disease  is  soon  relieved.  Only  a  few 
days  ago  I  disposed  of  a  tumour  in  twenty-four  hours  that  the  doctors 
had  said  must  be  removed  by  the  knife.  I  changed  the  course  of  the 
mind  to  counteract  the  efl'ect  of  the  disease.  This  proves  the  myth  of 
matter.  Mesmerism  will  make  an  apple  burn  the  hand  so  that  the  child 
will  cry.  My  husband  never  spoke  of  death  as  something  we  were  to 
meet,  but  only  as  a  phase  of  mortal  belief.  ...  I  do  believe  in  God's 
supremacy  over   error,   and   this   gives   me  peace.     I   do   believe,   and   have 

^  Dr.  Carpenter  was  a  well-known  mesmerist  who  used  to  give  public  exhi- 
bitions in  Boston. 

« Although  Mrs.  Eddy  usually  attributed  her  husband's  death  to  Mr.  Arens' 
mesmeric  influence,  she  sometimes  mentioned  Richard  Kennedy  as  his  accomplice. 


288        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

been  told,  that  there  is  a  price  set  upon  my  head.  One  of  my  students, 
a  malpractitioner,  has  been  heard  to  say  that  he  would  follow  us  to  the 
grave.  He  has  already  reached  my  husband.  While  my  husband  and  I  were 
in  Washington  and  Philadelphia  last  winter,  we  were  obliged  to  guard 
against  poison,  the  same  symptoms  apparent  at  my  husband's  death  con- 
stantly attending  us.  And  yet  the  one  who  was  planning  the  evil  against 
us  was  in  Boston  the  whole  time.  To-day  a  lady,  active  in  forwarding 
the  good  of  our  college,  told  me  that  she  had  been  troubled  almost  con- 
stantly with  arsenical  poison  symptoms,  and  is  now  treating  them  constantly 
as  I  directed  her.  Three  days  ago  one  of  my  patients  died,  and  the 
doctor  said  he  died  from  arsenic,  and  yet  there  were  no  material  symptoms 
of  poison. 

The  "  Doctor  "  Eastman  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  quotes  as  corrobo- 
rating her  theory  that  Mr.  Eddy  died  from  arsenic  was  not 
a  graduate  of  any  medical  school,  nor  is  there  any  evidence 
that  he  had  ever  studied  at  one,  though  the  then  lax  medical 
laws  of  Massachusetts  did  not  prevent  him  from  writing  M.D. 
after  his  name.  He  was  a  director  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  college,  and 
his  name  appeared  in  her  curriculum  as  an  authority  to  be 
consulted  on  instrumental  surgery,  which  was  not  taught  in 
her  classes.  He  was  also  dean  of  the  so-called  "  Bellevue 
Medical  College,"  which  was  chartered  under  the  same  undis- 
criminating  act  under  which  Mrs.  Eddy's  college  was  chartered, 
and  which  was  later  reported  as  a  fraudulent  institution  and 
closed. 

In  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  June,  1885,  Mrs.  Eddy  thus 
explains  Mr.  Eastman's  connection  with  her  college,  but  neg- 
lects to  say  that  he  was  one  of  the  original  directors : 

Charles  J.  Eastman,  M.D.,  was  never  a  student  of  mine,  and,  to  my 
knowledge,  never  claimed  to  be  a  Christian  Scientist.  At  the  time  Mr. 
Rice '  alludes  to  he  was  a  homeopathic  physician  and  dean  of  the  Bellevue 

'  The  Rev.  Mr.  Rice,  a  former  member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  had 
written  some  newspaper  articles  against  the  issue  of  medical  diplomas  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  college. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  289 

Medical  College.  His  name  appeared  in  my  curriculum  as  surgeon  to  be 
consulted  outside,  instrumental  surgery  not  being  taught  in  my  college. 
His  name  has  been  removed  from  my  curriculum.  Such  are  the  facts  where- 
with Rev.  Mr.   Rice  would  slander  a  religious  sect. 

Mary  B.  G.  Eddy, 
Prest.    Massachusetts    Metaphysical   College. 

Although  a  genial  enough  fellow  personally,  and  a  frequent 
caller  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  house,  Eastman's  "  professional  "  record 
is  almost  incredibly  sinister.  His  private  practice  was  largely 
of  a  criminal  nature,  and  at  the  time  when  Mrs.  Eddy  made 
him  a  director  of  her  college  he  had  already  been  indicted  on 
a  charge  of  performing  a  criminal  operation.  In  1890  he  was 
again  before  the  Grand  Jury  on  a  similar  charge;  and  in  1893, 
upon  a  tliird  charge  (the  patient  having  died  from  the  effects 
of  the  operation),  he  was  sentenced  to  five  years  in  the  State 
prison.  Eastman  served  out  his  term,  and  died  a  few  years 
after  his  release. 

Eastman's  assertion  that  he  found  traces  of  arsenic  in  Mr. 
Eddy's  body  was  absolutely  valueless  as  a  medical  opinion. 

Mr.  Eddy's  funeral  services  were  held  at  the  house  in  Colum- 
bus Avenue,  after  which  his  remains  were  taken  to  Tilton,  N.  H., 
by  Mr.  George  D.  Choate,  and  interred  in  the  Baker  family 
lot,  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  remaining  in  Boston.  On  the  following 
Sunday,  Mrs.  Clara  Choate  preached  a  eulogistic  funeral 
sermon  before  the  Christian  Science  congregation — still  a  small 
body  of  less  than  fifty  members.  Mr.  Eddy,  indeed,  died  upon 
the  eve  of  the  determining  epoch  in  his  wife's  career,  and  could 
have  had  no  conception  of  the  ultimate  influence  and  extent 
of  the  movement  which  bears  his  name. 

Some  time  after  IMr.  Eddy's  death,  his  wife  wrote  a  colloquy 
in  verse,  which  she  called  "  Meeting  of  my  Departed  Mother 


290        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

and  Husband,"  in  which  she  expressed  confidence  in  their  blessed 
state  and  in  her  own  future. 

In  this  dialogue  the  mother,  Abigail  Baker,   asks  of  Mr. 
Eddy: 

Bearest   thou    no   tidings    from   our    loved    on    earth, 
The  toiler  tireless  for  Truth's  new  birth, 

All  unbeguiled? 
Our  joy  is  gathered  from  her  parting  sigh: 
This  hour  looks  on  her  heart  with  pitying  eye, — 

What  of  my  child? 

To  this  Mr.  Eddy  replies: 

When  severed  by  death's  dream,  I  woke  to  life: 
She  deemed  I  died,  and  could  not  hear  my  strife 

At  first  to  fill 
That  waking  with   a  love  that  steady  turns 
To  God;  a  hope  that  ever  upward  yearns. 

Bowed  to  his  wiU. 

Years  had  passed  o'er  thy  broken  household   band 
When  angels  beckoned  me  to  this  bright  land, 

With  thee  to  meet. 
She  that  has  wept  o'er  me,  kissed  thy  cold  brow. 
Rears  the  sad  marble  to  our  memory  now 

In  lone  retreat. 

By  the  remembrance  of  her  earthly   life, 
And  parting  prayer,  I  only  know  my  wife. 

Thy  child,  shall  come, — 
Where  farewells  cloud  not  o'er  our  ransomed  rest, — 
Hither  to  reap,  with  all  the  crowned  and  blest. 

Of  bliss  the  sum. 

Many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students,  as  well  as  Mrs.  Eddy  herself, 
disregarded  the  evidence  of  the  autopsy,  and  believed  that  Mr. 
Eddy  had  died  from  mesmeric  poison  rather  than  from  a  disease 
of  the  heart.     Every  new  movement  has  its  extremists,   and 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  291 

Christian  Science  was  then  so  young  that  all  sorts  of  extravagant 
hopes  were  cherished  among  its  enthusiasts.  More  than  one 
dreamer  fervently  believed  that  the  grave  was  at  last  to  be 
cheated  of  its  victory.  In  any  case,  Mr.  Eddy's  death  was 
regarded  as  a  blow  to  the  movement,  but,  since  they  believed 
that  the  bodily  organs  were  impotent  to  contribute  to  either 
health  or  disease  except  as  they  were  influenced  by  the  belief 
of  the  patient,  it  was  much  less  discouraging  to  feel  that  Mr. 
Eddy  had  died  from  the  shafts  of  the  enemy  than  from  a  simple 
defect  of  the  heart-valves.  In  the  one  case,  his  death  was  a 
stimulus,  a  call  to  action ;  in  the  other,  it  was  an  impeachment 
of  Mr.  Eddy's  growth  in  Science,  an  indication  that  he  had 
not  entirely  got  beyond  the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  the  organs 
of  the  body.  Explained  as  the  work  of  animal  magnetism, 
Mr.  Eddy's  death,  which  might  otherwise  have  been  a  blow  to 
his  wife  professionally,  was  made  to  confirm  one  of  her  favourite 
doctrines.  It  was  upon  the  subject  of  malicious  mesmerism 
that  many  of  her  students  had  differed  from  her  and  fallen 
away,  and  even  the  loyal  found  it  the  most  difficult  of  her  doc- 
trines to  accept.  Here,  in  Mr.  Eddy's  death,  was  absolute 
evidence  of  what  mesmerism  might  accomplish. 

The  hour  had  come  when  Mrs.  Eddy  needed  all  her  friends 
about  her.  Arthur  T.  Buswell  was  still  in  Cincinnati,  where 
he  had  been  sent  as  a  path-finder  two  years  before.  After 
Mrs.  Eddy's  tart  reply  when  he  wrote  to  her  asking  financial 
aid,  their  correspondence  practically  ceased  until  Mr.  Eddy's 
illness,  when  she  sent  him  a  request  to  give  her  husband  absent 
treatments.  One  day  he  received  a  telegram  which  said  merely : 
"  Come  to  569  Columbus  Avenue  immediately."     He  accordingly 


292        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

gave  up  his  position  as  Superintendent  of  Public  Charities, 
and  started  at  once  for  Boston.  When  he  arrived  at  569 
Columbus  Avenue,  he  found  Mr.  Eddy  dead  in  the  house,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  surrounded  by  half  a  dozen  faithful  students,  and 
almost  frantic  from  fear.  She  declared  that  mesmerism  had 
broken  down  her  every  defence,  that  her  students  were  powerless 
to  treat  against  it,  and  that  she  herself  was  at  last  prostrated. 
Twice,  she  said,  she  had  resuscitated  her  husband  from  the 
power  which  was  strangling  him,  but  the  third  time  her  strength 
was  exhausted.  Mesmerism  was  submerging  them,  and  she  felt 
that  she  was  barely  keeping  her  own  head  above  water.  She 
was  afraid  to  go  out  of  the  house,  and  afraid  to  stay  in  it. 
This  was  the  end,  she  told  her  faithful  women ;  undoubtedly  she 
would  speedily  follow  her  husband.  The  light  of  truth  was  to 
be  put  out,  and  the  world  would  begin  again  its  dreary  vigil 
of  centuries. 

But,  although  beset  by  grief  and  fear,  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not 
abandon  herself  to  lamentation.  On  the  contrary,  she  sat 
almost  constantly  at  her  desk,  writing  press  notices  and  news- 
paper interviews  upon  the  subject  of  her  husband's  death. 
Mrs.  Eddy,  indeed,  is  never  so  commanding  a  figure  as  when 
she  bestirs  herself  in  the  face  of  calamity.  She  gave  way  to 
fear  and  dread  only  in  the  short  intervals  when  she  laid  aside 
her  driven  pen  for  rest,  and  her  best  energies  were  concentrated 
upon  how  she  should  present  to  the  public  this  misfortune 
which,  if  wrongly  understood,  might  be  used  as  an  effective 
argument  against  Christian  Science,  and  might  retard  her 
advancement  in  a  new  field. 

Soon  after  her  husband's  death,  Mrs.   Eddy,   attended  by 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  293 

Mr.  Buswell  and  Miss  Alice  Sibley,  went  to  Mr.  Buswell's  old 
home  at  Barton,  Vt.,  to  spend  the  remainder  of  the  smnmer. 
Mr.  Buswell  asserts  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  in  an  excessively 
nervous  and  exhausted  condition,  approaching  nervous  prostra- 
tion, and  that  he  was  called  up  night  after  night  to  treat  her 
for  those  hysterical  attacks  from  which  she  was  never  entirely 
free.  But,  however  ill  she  might  have  been  the  night  before, 
each  day  found  her  planning  for  the  future  of  her  church  and 
college,  arranging  for  lectures  to  be  given  by  her  students, 
looking  about  for  new  practitioners,  and  tirelessly  devising 
means  to  extend  the  movement.  She  knew  that  a  practical 
reconstruction  of  her  household  would  now  be  necessary,  and 
began  casting  about  in  her  mind  for  such  of  her  students  as 
could  be  counted  upon  to  devote  themselves  unreservedly  to  her 
service.  In  one  of  her  selections,  certainly,  she  was  not  mis- 
taken. On  the  day  they  started  back  to  Boston,  Mrs.  Eddy 
asked  Mr.  Buswell  to  telegraph  Calvin  A.  Frye,  a  young 
machinist  of  Lawrence,  Mass.,  who  had  lately  studied  with  her, 
to  meet  them  at  Plymouth,  N.  H.  One  is  tempted  to  wonder 
what  Mr.  Frye  would  have  done,  when  this  message  reached 
him,  had  he  known  of  what  it  was  to  be  the  beginning.  From 
the  day  he  joined  Mrs.  Eddy  at  Plymouth,  and  returned  to 
Boston  with  her,  he  has  never  left  her.  Having  entered  Mrs. 
Eddy's  service  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  he  is  now  a  man  of 
sixty-four,  and  is  still  at  his  post. 

For  twenty-seven  years  Mr.  Frye  has  occupied  an  anomalous 
position  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  household.  He  has  been  her  house- 
steward,  bookkeeper,  and  secretary.  When  he  attends  her 
upon  her  ceremonial  drives  in  Concord,  he  wears  the  livery  of 


294<        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

a  footman.  In  a  letter  to  her  son,  George  Glover,  written 
April  27,  1898,  Mrs.  Eddy  describes  Mr.  Frye  as  her  "  man-of- 
all-work."  Since  Mrs.  Eddy's  retirement  to  Concord  eighteen 
years  ago,  Calvin  Frye  has  lived  in  an  isolation  almost  as  com- 
plete as  her  own,  the  object  of  surmises  and  insinuations.  He 
has  no  personal  friends  outside  of  the  walls  of  Pleasant  View, 
and  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  in  twenty-seven  years  he  has 
not  been  beyond  Mrs.  Eddy's  call  for  twenty-four  hours  is 
perhaps  literally  true.  Although  her  treatment  of  him  has 
often  been  contemptuous  in  the  extreme,  his  fidelity  has  been 
invaluable  to  Mrs.  Eddy ;  but  the  actual  donning  of  livery 
by  a  middle-aged  man  of  some  education  and  of  sturdy,  inde- 
pendent New  England  ancestry,  is  a  difficult  thing  to  under- 
stand. Whether  he  feels  the  grave  charges  which  have  recently 
been  brought  against  him,  or  the  ridicule  of  which  he  has  long 
been  the  object,  it  is  not  likely  that  any  one  will  ever  learn 
from  Mr.  Frye.  Whatever  his  motives  and  experiences,  they 
are  securely  hidden  behind  an  impassive  countenance  and  a 
long-confirmed  habit  of  silence. 

Calvin  A.  Frye  was  born  August  24,  1845,  in  Frye  Village, 
which  is  now  a  part  of  Andover,  Mass.,  and  which  was  formerly 
called  Frye's  Mills,  as  it  was  a  settlement  which  had  grown  up 
about  the  saw-mill  and  grist-mill  of  Enoch  Frye  II.,  Calvin 
Frye's  grandfather.  The  Fryes  were  an  old  American  family, 
and  their  ancestors  had  taken  part  in  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion and  the  War  of  1812.  Calvin  Frye's  father,  Enoch  Frye 
III.,  was  bom  in  the  last  year  of  the  eighteenth  century.  After 
preparing  himself  in  the  Phillips  Andover  Academy,  he  entered 
Harvard  University,  and  was  graduated  in  1821,  with  that 


I'liutograt/Ii  by  Notiuau  Photo  Company 

CALVIN  A.  FRYE 

From  a  photograph  taken  about  1S82 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  295 

famous  class  to  which  belonged  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Samuel 
Hatch,  Edward  Loring,  and  Francis  Cabot.  The  members 
of  this  class,  before  their  graduation,  agreed  to  hold  a  reunion 
every  year  for  fifty  years,  and  Enoch  Frye  was  present  at 
the  fiftieth  and  last  reunion  of  his  class  at  Cambridge  in 
1871. 

After  leaving  college,  Enoch  Frye  taught  for  a  short  time 
as  assistant  master  in  one  of  the  Boston  schools.  In  1823 
he  returned  to  Andover.  While  still  a  young  man  he  had  a 
long  illness  which  left  him  incurably  lame  and  partially  in- 
capacitated him.  After  his  recovery  he  kept  a  small  grocery- 
store.  He  married  Lydia  Barnard,  and  they  had  four  chil- 
dren, of  whom  Calvin  was  the  third.  While  the  children  were 
still  very  young,  the  mother  became  insane,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  lucid  intervals  of  short  duration,  she  was  insane 
until  her  death  at  an  advanced  age.  She  was  twice  placed  in  an 
asylum,  but,  upon  her  return  from  her  second  stay  there,  she 
begged  her  family  not  to  send  her  away  again,  and  for  twelve 
years  thereafter  she  was  the  charge  of  her  widowed  daughter, 
Lydia  Roaf . 

Each  of  Enoch  Frye's  children  learned  a  trade,  and  Calvin, 
after  attending  the  public  school  in  Andover,  was  apprenticed 
as  a  machinist  in  Davis  &  Furber's  machine-shops  in  North  An- 
dover. He  worked  there  until  he  joined  Mrs.  Eddy  in  1882. 
He  was  a  good  machinist,  and  left  a  steady  and  fairly  re- 
munerative employment  to  follow  her.  When  he  was  twenty- 
six  years  old,  Calvin  married  Miss  Ada  E.  Brush  of  Lowell, 
who  was  visiting  in  Lawrence,  and  who  attended  the  same  church. 
She  lived  but  one  year,  and  after  her  death  Calvin  went  back 


29G        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

to  his  father's  house — the  family  had  moved  to  Lawrence  in 
the  early  '60's. 

The  Fryes  were  all  calm,  slow,  and  inarticulate.  They  kept 
to  themselves,  both  in  Andover  and  in  Lawrence,  and  never  went 
anywhere  except  to  the  Congregational  Church,  of  which  they 
all  were  members.  In  their  church  relations  they  were  as  quiet 
and  unassertive  as  in  their  secular  life.  They  went  to  service 
regularly,  but  evinced  no  special  interest  in  the  church.  Indeed, 
their  solitary  manner  of  life  seemed  to  come  about  from  a  gen- 
eral lack  of  interest  in  people  and  affairs,  and  they  stayed 
at  home  not  so  much  because  of  an  absorbing  family  life  as 
because  they  felt  no  impulse  to  stir  about  the  world.  The  men 
were  all  good  mechanics,  regular  and  steady  in  their  habits ; 
Lydia,  the  daughter,  was  patient,  industrious,  and  self-sacri- 
ficing. As  a  family,  the  Fryes  were  long-lived.  Enoch  III. 
lived  from  1799  to  1886.  His  brother  Andrew,  now  living, 
is  between  ninety-five  and  ninety-six  years  old,  and  a  sister  also 
lived  to  a  great  age.  Careful,  regular  living  and  a  systematic 
avoidance  of  any  excitement  long  preserved  the  Fryes  in  health 
of  mind  and  body.  Certainly  the  forbears  of  Calvin  Frye  had 
done  their  best  to  sheathe  his  nerves  for  the  uneasy  office  to 
which  he  was  to  be  called  and  chosen. 

Calvin  and  Lydia  Frye  first  became  interested  in  Christian 
Science  through  their  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Oscar  Frye.  Mrs. 
Clara  Choate,  a  prominent  healer  in  the  Boston  church,  was 
called  to  treat  the  insane  mother,  whom  the  family  believed 
was  benefited  by  the  treatments.  Calvin  took  a  course  of  in- 
struction under  Mrs.  Eddy,  after  which  both  he  and  Lydia  prac- 
tised a  little.     After  Calvin  joined  Mrs.  Eddy  in  Boston,  Lydia 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  297 

followed  him,  and  for  some  time  did  Mrs.  Eddy's  housework. 
Returning  ill  to  Lawrence,  she  underwent  a  severe  surgical 
operation,  and  at  last  died  in  reduced  circumstances  at  the 
home  of  a  relative.  Lydia  was  an  ardent  Christian  Scientist, 
and  almost  until  the  day  she  died  stoutly  declared  that  she  "  did 
not  believe  in  death." 

From  the  day  Calvin  Frye  entered  the  service  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
he  lived  in  literal  accordance  with  the  suggestion  of  that  pas- 
sage in  Science  and  Health  ^  where  Mrs.  Eddy  reminds  us  that 
Jesus  acknowledged  no  family  ties  and  bade  us  call  no  man 
father.  Mrs.  Eddy  demanded  of  her  followers  all  that  they 
had  to  give,  and  Mr.  Frye,  certainly,  complied  with  her  demand. 
When  his  father,  Enoch  Frye  III.,  died,  on  April  22,  1886, 
four  years  after  the  son  had  entered  Mrs.  Eddy's  service, 
Calvin  went  down  to  Lawrence  to  attend  the  funeral,  but  his 
precipitate  haste  indicated  a  short  leave  of  absence.  On  the 
way  to  the  cemetery  he  stopped  the  carriage  and  boarded  a 
street-car  bound  for  the  railway-station,  in  order  to  catch  the 
next  train  back  to  Boston.  By  the  time  his  sister  Lydia  died, 
four  years  later,  Calvin  had  become  so  completely  absorbed  in 
his  new  life  and  duties  that  he  did  not  acknowledge  the  notifica- 
tion of  her  death,  did  not  go  to  her  funeral,  and  did  not  respond 
to  a  request  for  a  small  amount  of  money  to  help  defray  the 
burial  expenses.  For  him  family  ties  no  longer  existed,  and 
death  had  become  merely  a  belief. 


^Science  and  Health  (1906),  page  31. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

MRS.    eddy's    boston    HOUSEHOLD A    DAILY    WARFARE    AGAINST 

MESMERISM THE  P.  M.  SOCIETY AN  ACTION  AGAINST  ARENS 

FOR    INFRINGEMENT    OF    COPYRIGHT 

The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  in  Boston,  was 
first  at  569  Columbus  Avenue,  and  later  at  571,  the  house 
next-door.  The  houses,  which  are  still  standing,  were  then 
exactly  alike,  narrow  three-and-a-half -story  dwellings  with  gray 
stone  fronts  and  slate  roofs,  a  type  of  house  very  common  in 
Boston.  When  Mrs.  Eddy  returned  to  the  city  in  the  fall  of 
1882,  attended  by  Mr.  Buswell  and  Mr.  Frye,  she  at  once 
resumed  her  classes ;  this,  of  course,  meant  that  the  college  had 
reopened,  for  Mrs.  Eddy  was  still  the  president  and  entire 
faculty.  Half  a  dozen  or  more  of  her  students  now  made  their 
home  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  house,  or,  as  they  expressed  it,  "  lived  at 
the  college."  Among  these  were  Calvin  Frye,  Arthur  Buswell, 
Julia  Bartlett,  Hanover  P.  Smith,  E.  H.  Hammond,  and  Mrs. 
Whiting.  (Luther  M.  Marston  and  Mrs.  Emma  Hopkins  came 
later.)  They  lived  on  a  cooperative  plan,  each  contributing 
his  share  toward  the  household  expenses,  while  Mr.  Frye  did  the 
marketing,  engaged  the  servants,  kept  the  accounts,  and  super- 
intended the  housekeeping.  Mrs.  Eddy  fitted  up  an  office  on 
the  first  floor,  where  most  of  her  resident  students  saw  their 
patients.     They  observed  a  system  of  rotation,  and  each  had 

298 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  299 

his  fixed  office  hours,  so  that  the  one  room  met  the  needs  of 
several  practitioners.  These  practitioners,  in  one  way  and 
another,  helped  to  arouse  an  interest  in  Christian  Science,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy's  classes  began  to  grow  larger.  Her  teaching  was 
not  so  much  of  a  tax  upon  her  strength  as  might  be  imagined, 
for  the  twelve  lectures  were,  by  this  time,  an  old  story  to  her 
and  the  same  lecture  was  always  given  in  practically  the  same 
language.  The  lectures  dealt  with  but  one  idea,  and  progressed 
rather  by  figurative  illustrations  and  repetitions  than  by  the 
development  of  a  line  of  reasoning.  But  her  duties  by  no 
means  ended  with  her  lectures.  She  kept  a  sharp  eye  on  the 
finances  of  the  college  and  the  household  expenditures,  more  than 
once  taking  Mr.  Frye  to  task  for  his  mistakes  in  bookkeeping. 
Mrs.  Eddy's  correspondence  was  now  very  large,  and  she  usually 
attended  to  it  herself.  She  frequently  occupied  the  pulpit  at 
Hawthorne  Hall  on  Sunday,  and  was  constantly  writing  replies 
to  attacks  upon  her  church  and  college,  besides  press  notices, 
which  Mr.  Buswell  took  about  to  the  editors  of  the  Boston 
papers  in  the  hope  of  further  advertising  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
work.  What  with  preaching,  teaching,  writing,  and  editing, 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  very  little  time  for  friendly  personal  in- 
tercourse. She  was,  as  her  students  used  proudly  to  declare, 
in  the  saddle  day  and  night.  She  went  out  of  the  house  but 
seldom;  though  she  liked  to  take  a  daily  drive  when  she  had 
time  for  it.  With  her  friends  and  resident  students  she  never 
talked  of  anything  but  Christian  Science  and  the  business 
problems  which  confronted  her.  When  other  subjects  were  in- 
troduced, she  grew  absent-minded.  She  read  very  little  except 
the  newspapers  and  the  New  York  Ledger,  which  she  had  read 


300        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

since  her  young  womanhood,  and  which  she  still  read  regularly 
every  week.  In  earlier  times  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  very  fond 
of  Mrs.  Southworth's  novels,  but  now  she  discouraged  the  read- 
ing of  fiction,  and  Science  and  Health  was  the  only  book  she 
kept  in  her  room.  When  she  lectured  before  her  classes,  Mrs. 
Eddy  usually  had  a  vase  of  flowers  upon  the  table  at  her  side, 
and,  to  illustrate  the  non-existence  of  matter,  she  often  ex- 
plained that  there  were  really  no  flowers  there  at  all,  and 
that  the  bouquet  was  merely  a  belief  of  mortal  mind.  She  was 
fond  of  flowers  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  had  always  been 
totally  without  a  sense  of  smell — she  used,  indeed,  to  tell  her 
students  that  the  absence  of  a  physical  sense  meant  a  gain  in 
spirituality. 

There  was  singularly  little  social  intercourse  among  the  stu- 
dents who  resided  at  the  college.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  no  idler,  and 
she  found  plenty  of  work  for  all  her  assistants.  Occasionally, 
in  the  evening,  a  fire  was  lighted  in  the  parlour  downstairs,  and 
she  joined  her  students  for  an  hour  or  two;  but  this  did  not 
occur  often.  The  two  memorable  festivities  of  the  Christian 
Scientists  in  the  early  '80's  were  the  reception  which  Mrs. 
Clara  E.  Choate  gave  for  Mrs.  Eddy  upon  the  latter's  return 
from  a  visit  to  Washington,  April  5,  1882,  and  the  picnic  at 
Point  of  Pines,  July  16,  1885,  which  commemorated  the  ninth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Christian  Science  Associa- 
tion, and  was  also  Mrs.  Eddy's  sixty-fourth  birthday.  At  this 
picnic  E.  H.  Harris,  a  dentist,  and  a  new  protege  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  gave  a  talk  in  which  he  mentioned  the  advantages  of 
^  Christian  Science  in  the  practice  of  dentistry;  Mrs.  Augusta 
Stetson,  who  had  recently  come  into  the  Association,  and  who 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  301 

had  been  a  professional  elocutionist  before  she  became  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist,  recited  two  poems ;  and  Mrs.  Eddy  gave  a 
"  spiritual  interpretation  "  of  the  ocean. 

The  atmosphere  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  derived  its  peculiar 
character  from  her  belief  in  malicious  mesmerism,  which  exerted 
a  sinister  influence  over  every  one  under  her  roof.  Her  students 
could  never  get  away  from  it.  Morning,  noon,  and  night  the 
thing  had  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  the  very  domestic  arrange- 
ments were  ordered  to  elude  or  to  combat  the  demoniacal  power. 
If  Mrs.  Eddy  had  kept  in  her  house  a  dangerous  maniac  or  some 
horrible  physical  monstrosity  which  was  always  breaking  from 
confinement  and  stealing  about  the  chambers  and  hallways,  it 
could  scarcely  have  cast  a  more  depressing  anxiety  over  her 
household.  Those  of  her  students  who  believed  in  mesmerism 
were  always  on  their  guard  with  each  other,  filled  with  suspicion 
and  distrust.  Those  who  did  not  believe  in  it  dared  not  admit 
their  disbelief.  If  a  member  of  that  household  denied  the 
doctrine,  or  even  showed  a  lack  of  interest  in  it,  he  was  at  once 
pronounced  a  mesmerist  and  requested  to  leave. 

Mr.  Eddy's  death  had  given  malicious  animal  magnetism  a 
new  vogue.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  always  discovering  in  herself 
and  her  students  symptoms  of  arsenical  poison  or  of  other  bale- 
ful drugs.  Her  nocturnal  illnesses,  wliich  she  had  for  years 
attributed  to  malicious  mesmerism,  were  now  more  frequent  and 
violent  than  ever. 

One  of  the  principal  duties  of  the  resident  students  was  to 
treat  Mrs.  Eddy  for  these  attacks.  These  seizures  usually 
came  on  about  midnight.  Mrs.  Eddy  would  first  call  Mr.  Frye, 
and  he,  after  hurrying  into  his   clothes,  would  go  about  the 


302        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

house,  knocking  at  the  doors  of  all  the  students,  and  calling 
to  them  to  dress  immediately  and  hurry  down  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
room.  After  arousing  the  inmates  of  the  house,  he  would  hasten 
through  the  deserted  streets,  summoning  one  after  another  of 
the  healers  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  considered  most  effective.  When 
they  arrived  at  the  college,  they  would  find  a  group  of  sleepy 
men  standing  in  the  hall  outside  Mrs.  Eddy's  door,  talking  in 
low  tones.  They  were  called,  one  by  one,  by  Miss  Bartlett  or 
Mr.  Frye,  and  admitted  singly  into  Mrs.  Eddy's  chamber. 
Sometimes  she  lay  in  a  comatose  condition,  and  would  remain 
thus  for  several  hours,  while  each  student,  in  his  turn,  sat 
beside  the  bed  and  silently  treated  her  for  about  twenty  min- 
utes. He  then  left  the  room  by  another  door  than  the  one  by 
which  he  had  entered,  and  another  student  took  his  place. 
Again,  the  students  would  find  Mrs.  Eddy  sitting  up  in  bed, 
with  a  high  colour,  her  hair  in  disorder,  wringing  her  hands 
and  uttering  unintelligible  phrases.  On  one  occasion,  when 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  walking  the  floor  with  a  raging  toothache,  meta- 
physical treatment  was  abandoned,  and  several  of  her  students 
rushed  up  and  down  Tremont  Street  after  midnight,  trying 
to  persuade  some  dentist  to  leave  his  bed  and  come  to  her 
relief. 

In  animal  magnetism  Mrs.  Eddy  found  a  satisfactory  ex- 
planation for  the  seeming  perversjty  of  inanimate  things. 
Mesmerism  caused  the  water-pipes  to  freeze  and  the  wash- 
boiler  to  leak.  She  was  convinced  that  all  the  postal  clerks  and 
telegraph  operators  in  Boston  had  been  mesmerised,  and  on  one 
occasion,  when  she  was  sending  an  important  telegram  to 
Chicago,  she  sent  Luther  M.  Marston,  one  of  her  students,  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  303 

West  Newton  to  despatch  it  via  Worcester,  so  that  it  need 
not  go  through  Boston  at  all. 

When  a  contagion  of  influenza  spread  about  Boston  in  the 
early  '80's,  a  number  of  the  students  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  class 
were  aff'ected  by  it.  She  paused  one  day  in  the  midst  of  a 
lecture  to  say :  "  I  notice  that  a  number  of  you  are  sneezing 
and  coughing,  and  the  cause  is  perfectly  apparent  to  me. 
Kennedy  and  SpofFord  are  treating  you  for  hashish.  Just 
treat  yourselves  against  hashish,  and  this  will  pass." 

Even  the  students  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  roof  were  at  times 
accused  of  resorting  to  malicious  malpractice.  On  one  occasion 
Mr.  Buswell  secured  the  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  P.  Peabody  of  Cam- 
bridge to  preach  before  the  Christian  Science  congregation  at 
Hawthorne  Hall.  It  was  announced  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  before  the 
students  started  for  the  service,  that  Mr.  Frye  was  to  introduce 
Dr.  Peabody  to  the  audience.  When  the  minister  ascended  the 
rostrum,  however,  he  was  alone,  and  no  one  introduced  him. 
After  several  days  had  passed,  Mr.  Frye  knocked  at  Mr.  Bus- 
well's  door  late  one  night,  and  told  him  that  he  was  wanted  in 
the  parlour.  Mr.  Buswell  rose,  dressed,  and  went  downstairs, 
where  he  found  Mrs.  Eddy  and  half  a  dozen  resident  students 
sitting  about  the  room.  Mr.  Buswell  sat  down,  and  for  a  few 
minutes  every  one  was  silent.  Then  Mr.  Frye  rose  and  said, 
"  Mr.  Buswell,  I  charge  you  with  having  worked  upon  my 
mind  last  Sunday,  so  that  I  could  not  introduce  the  speaker." 
Mrs.  Eddy  listened  while  Mr.  Buswell  defended  himself.  Sev- 
eral other  students  spoke,  and  then  everybody  went  off  to 
bed. 

In  the  summer  of  1884  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  her  first  class 


304        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

in  Chicago.  She  had  now  fallen  out  with  Mrs.  Clara  Choate, 
and  for  several  weeks  before  she  went  West  Mrs.  Eddj  was  in 
a  state  of  great  anxiety  lest  Mrs.  Choate  should  "  prostrate  " 
her  through  mesmerism,  as  she  believed  that  Mrs.  Choate  herself 
wished  to  go  to  Chicago  to  teach.  Mr.  Frye  had  bought  tickets 
for  Mrs.  Eddy  and  himself  when,  on  the  very  night  before  they 
were  to  start,  she  fell  ill.  Next  day  she  was  not  able  to  leave 
the  house,  and  many  of  her  students  were  summoned  to  the 
college  to  treat  against  Mrs.  Choate. 

This  adverse  treatment,  now  conducted  with  some  system, 
was  an  important  feature  of  the  daily  life  at  the  college.  A 
regular  society  was  organised  among  Mrs.  Eddy's  most  trusted 
students  and  was  called  the  "P.  M."  (Private  Meeting).^ 
This  society  met  daily  after  breakfast  in  the  morning  and  after 
supper  at  night,  gathered  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  parlour,  and  "  took 
up  the  enemy  "  in  thought.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  always  present 
at  these  sittings,  but  she  usually  gave  out  the  line  of  treatmeint. 
She  would  say,  for  example:  "Treat  Kennedy.  Say  to  him: 
ij]  *  Your  sins  have  found  you  out.  You  are  affected  as  you 
I  wish  to  affect  me.  Your  evil  thought  reacts  upon  you.  You 
are  bilious,  you  are  consumptive,  you  have  liver  trouble,  you 
have  been  poisoned  by  arsenic,'  "  etc.  Mrs.  Eddy  further  in- 
structed her  practitioners  that,  when  they  were  treating  their 
patients,  they  should  first  take  up  and  combat  the  common 
enemy,  mesmerism,  before  they  took  up  the  patient's  error. 
The  adverse  treatments  given  by  the  students  at  the  college 
were  usually  conducted  in  perfect  silence,  and  the  participants 

'The  sessions  of  this  secret  society  later  caused  a  good  deal  of  discussion  and 
criticism.  In  the  Chrislian  Science  Journal  of  September,  18S8,  Mrs.  Eddv  ad- 
™;Jl.  ^  *^  "  did  organise  a  secret  society  Ijnown  as  the  P.  M.,"  but  that  its 

workings  were  not  "  shocking  or  terrible." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  305 

sat  with  their  eyes  closed.^  Miss  Bartlett,  a  very  devout 
woman,  as  she  sat  in  this  silent  circle,  absorbed  in  her  task, 
her  eyes  closed,  her  head  bowed,  had  a  habit  of  idly  passing 
a  side-comb  again  and  again  through  her  hair.  Mrs.  Eddy, 
who,  when  she  was  there,  always  kept  an  eye  on  the  circle, 
on  one  of  these  occasions  suddenly  broke  the  stillness  by  a  sar- 
castic remark  to  the  effect  that  better  work  would  be  done 
if  less  time  were  spent  in  hair-combing  and  more  in  combating 
error.  Miss  Bartlett  blushed  as  if  she  had  been  caught  com- 
mitting a  mortal  sin. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy's  policy  of  sharp  rebuke  proved  to  be  a  wise 
one.  On  the  whole  her  students  liked  it,  and  on  the  whole  they 
needed  it.  Her  business  assistants  and  practitioners  were,  most 
of  them,  young  men  whose  years  had  need  of  direction.  In 
the  nature  of  the  case,  they  were  generally  young  men  without 
a  strong  purpose  and  without  very  definite  aims  and  ambitions. 
Whether  it  was  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  want  men  of  determina- 
tion about  her,  or  whether  such  men  were  not  drawn  to  her  and 
her  college,  the  fact  remains  that  most  of  the  men  then  in  her 
service  were  of  the  eminently  biddable  sort.  Some  of  them, 
before  they  came  into  Christian  Science,  had  tried  other  voca- 
tions and  had  not  been  successful.  Mrs.  Eddy  drew  young 
men  of  this  type  about  her,  not  only  because  she  could  offer  them 
a  good  living,  but  because  she  was  able  to  give  them  an  im- 
petus, to  charge  them  with  energy  and  endow  them  with  a  cer- 
tain effectiveness  which  they  did  not  have  of  themselves.  Loyal 
Christian  Scientists  point  to  this  or  that  man  who  once  worked 


=  Calvin  Frye,  Artbur  Bnswcll,  Hanover  P.  Smith,  Luther  M.  Marston,  E.  H. 
Hammond.  Mrs.  Whiting,  and  Miss  Julia  Bartlett  were  at  various  times  mem- 
bers of  tliis  circle. 


306        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

under  Mrs.  Eddy  and  who  afterward  broke  with  her,  explaining 
that  he  was  more  successful  and  useful  under  her  than  he  has 
ever  been  since  he  went  over  to  the  enemy.  In  some  instances 
this  is  true.  Many  of  her  students  never  worked  so  well  after 
they  withdrew  from  her  compelling  leadership,  and  their  contact 
with  her  remained  the  most  vivid  and  important  event  in  their 
lives.  Out  of  her  abundant  energy  and  determination  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  been  able  to  nerve  many  a  weak  arm  and  to  steel  many 
an  irresolute  will,  and  she  has  done  much  of  her  work  with  tools 
which  were  temporarily  given  hardness  and  edge  by  the  driving 
personality  behind  them. 

As  the  college  grew  and  her  classes  increased  in  size,  Mrs. 
Eddy  exacted,  and  for  the  most  part  obtained,  the  same  absolute 
obedience  which  she  had  demanded  of  the  faithful  in  Lynn. 
She  had  a  custom  of  sending  telegrams  to  students  who  had 
left  Boston,  summoning  them  to  report  at  the  college  imme- 
diately, and  giving  no  explanation  of  the  order.  When  they 
arrived  there,  they  sometimes  found  that  she  had  merely  been 
experimenting  to  see  how  quickly  they  could  reach  her  in  case 
of  need.  If  they  were  prompt  in  this  sort  of  drill,  she  seemed 
pleased  and  reassured.  On  the  Fourth  of  July,  especially, 
she  demanded  that  all  her  students  be  subject  to  call,  and 
that  none  of  the  resident  students  leave  Boston  on  that  day. 
She  explained  that  on  the  Fourth  "  mortal  mind  was  in  ebulli- 
tion," and  she  feared  animal  magnetism  more  then  than  at  any 
other  time. 

In  1883  Mrs.  Eddy  brought  an  action  against  Edward  J. 
Arcns  for  infringement  of  her  copyright  upon  Science  and 
Health,  and  won  the  suit.     Arens  was  forbidden  to  circulate 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  307 

his  book, — to  which  there  has  already  been  a  reference  in 
Chapter  XV, — and  the  copies  which  he  had  on  hand  were 
ordered  by  the  court  to  be  destroyed.  Mr.  Arens'  defence  was 
that  Science  and  Health  was  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  work,  but 
that  it  had  been  taken  largely  from  P.  P.  Quimby's  manuscripts. 
As  none  of  Mr.  Quimby's  manuscripts  had  been  published  or 
copyrighted,  and  as  Mr.  Arens  did  not  have  them  in  his 
possession,  the  defendant's  position  was  obviously  untenable. 
Although  this  decision  had  to  do  merely  with  the  validity  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  copyright,  and  did  not  touch  upon  the  authorship 
of  the  book,  Mrs.  Eddy  chose  to  construe  it  as  being  a  court 
decision  to  the  effect  that  she  was  the  sole  author  of  Science 
and  Health,  and  the  founder  and  discoverer  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence ;  and  her  construction  cheered  and  encouraged  her  quite 
as  much,  perhaps,  as  an  actual  decision  to  that  effect  would 
have  done.  She  afterward  referred  to  this  decision  as  her 
"  vindication  in  the  United  States  court." 

The  years  from  1882  to  1885  were  years  of  rapid  advance- 
ment for  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Christian  Science.  Although  a  list  of 
the  members  of  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association,  made  June 
2,  1884,  shows  that  but  sixty-one  persons  then  belonged  to  the 
Association,  many  people  were  interested  in  Christian  Science 
who  had  not  actually  allied  themselves  with  It,  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  steadily  gaining  some  sort  of  recognition  for  herself  and 
her  teachings.  She  had  now  a  considerable  number  of  graduate 
students  who  were  in  practice,  and  their  success,  as  well  as  hers, 
depended  upon  the  growth  of  Christian  Science  and  of  the 
college.  They  sent  their  patients  to  study  tinder  her,  and 
canvassed  widely  among  their  friends  and  acquaintances.    Some 


308        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

of  these  students  went  to  distant  places  to  practise,  and  did 
the  work  of  missionaries,  encouraging  their  patients  to  go  to 
Boston  and  study  under  Mrs.  Eddy.  A  degree  from  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Metaphysical  College  meant,  in  most  cases,  a  lucra- 
tive practice.  In  the  West  especially,  where  Boston  is  regarded 
as  the  sum  of  all  that  is  conservative,  and  where  even  the  banks 
consider  it  an  advantage  to  have  a  Bostonian  among  their 
directors,  a  degree  from  a  Boston  institution  meant  a  great 
deal,  and  the  "  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College  of  Boston  " 
suggested  an  institution  devoted  to  higher  scholarship.  A 
combination  of  Boston  and  metaphysics  seemed  to  leave  little 
to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  learning,  and  many  a  Western  stu- 
dent, after  having  "  gone  East  to  college,"  returned  home  to 
find  that,  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  living  and  commanding 
respect  among  his  neighbours,  a  degree  from  the  Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College  served  him  quite  as  well  as  a  degi'ee  from 
Harvard.  Graduate  students  had  lectured  and  practised  in 
Chicago,  and  when  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  a  class  there  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1884,  she  inspired  a  sentiment  which  was  ultimately  to 
build  up  a  strong  church. 

The  Christian  Science  Church  was  now  conspicuous  enough 
to  be  the  object  of  occasional  attacks  from  conservative  theo- 
logians. These  attacks  were  neither  frequent  nor  bitter, — 
mdeed,  they  were  usually  humorous  or  mildly  ironical, — but 
Mrs.  Eddy  made  the  most  of  them,  and  answered  them  with 
promptness  and  fire,  getting  her  replies  published  in  the  Boston 
newspapers  whenever  it  was  possible  to  do  so,  and,  when  editors 
proved  intractable,  resorting  to  her  own  periodical,  the  Chris- 
tian Science  Journal.     She  realised  the  value  of  persecution, 


\0   c 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  309 

even  when  it  had  to  be  helped  along  a  little,  and  in  the  Journal 
for  April,  1885,  she  cries :  "  Must  history  repeat  itself,  and 
religious  intolerance,  arrayed  against  the  rights  of  man,  again 
deluge  the  earth  in  blood?  "  In  the  Journal  we  find  that  in 
March  of  the  same  year,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  permitted  to  speak 
at  a  religious  meeting  held  at  Tremont  Temple,  and  there  to 
reply  to  a  letter  by  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon  denouncing  Christian 
Science,  and  that  she  gloriously  vindicated  her  church. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  president  of  the  "  Massachusetts  Meta- 
physical College,"  editor  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
president  of  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association,  and  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  (Scientist).  To  the  latter  office 
her  students  had  ordained  her,  without  the  aid  of  the  clergy, 
in  1881,  and  her  official  letters  and  press  communications  were 
now  usually  signed  "  Reverend  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy."  Her 
classes  now  numbered  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  students  each. 
The  course  of  instruction  took  only  three  weeks,  which,  with  a 
class  of  twenty-five,  would  mean  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  fees  for 
that  period  of  time  amounted  to  $7,500.  It  is  safe  to  say, 
however,  that  at  least  one-fourth  of  her  students  were  admitted 
at  a  discount  and  paid  only  $200  each.  Men  and  women  of 
intelligence  and  some  experience  of  the  world  began  to  frequent 
her  college.  Among  these  were  Dr.  J.  W.  Winkley,  then  a 
Unitarian  minister,  who  had  a  church  at  Revere ;  Mrs.  Emma 
Hopkins,  Mrs.  Ursula  Gestefeld  of  Chicago;  Mrs.  Augusta 
Stetson,  then  an  elocutionist  in  Somerville,  Boston ;  Mrs.  Ellen 
Brown  Linscott ;  Mrs.  Josephine  Woodbury  and  her  husband ; 
the  Rev.  J.  H.  Wiggin,  and  the  Rev.  Frank  E.  Mason. 

To  understand  the  early  growth  of  Christian  Science  in  Bos- 


310        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ton,  one  must  remember,  first,  that  Boston  was  then,  as  it  is 
now,  the  stronghold  of  radical  religious  sects ;  secondly,  that, 
while  fundamentally  Mrs.  Eddy  never  changed  at  all,  superfi- 
cially, she  was  continually  changing  for  the  better,  and  her 
shrewdness,  astuteness,  and  tact  grew  with  every  year  of  her  life. 
After  her  removal  to  Boston,  she  constantly  learned  from  her 
new  associates,  even  to  the  extent  of  resolutely  breaking  herself 
of  certain  ungrammatical  habits  of  speech — no  mean  achievement 
for  a  woman  above  sixty.  But  the  most  important  thing  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  learned  was  to  admit — to  herself  only — her  own 
limitations.  She  began  to  submit  her  editorials,  pamphlets, 
and  press  communications  to  certain  of  her  students  for  gram- 
matical censorship.  She  now  granted  interviews  to  strangers 
and  new  students  only  when  she  felt  at  her  best.  She  withdrew 
herself  from  her  followers  somewhat,  and  built  up  a  ceremonial 
barrier  which  was  not  without  its  effect.  In  writing,  she 
acquired  more  and  more  facility  as  time  went  on.  Her  style 
of  expression  remained  vague,  but  that  suited  her  purpose,  and 
her  excessive  floridity  delighted  many  of  her  readers,  and  was 
condoned  by  others  as  a  survival  of  the  old-fashioned  flowery 
manner  of  writing.  Her  letters  of  this  date  are  better  spelled 
and  punctuated,  and  are  written  in  a  firmer  and  more  vigorous 
hand,  than  those  written  when  she  was  forty. 

Mrs.  Eddy  now  began  to  limit  the  number  of  her  public 
addresses,  and  she  delivered  her  Sunday  sermon  before  her 
congregation  at  the  Hawthorne  rooms  only  when  she  felt  that 
she  could  rouse  herself  to  that  state  of  emotional  exaltation 
which  it  was  her  aim  to  produce  in  her  hearers.  Often  as  late 
as  Sunday  morning,  she  would  notify  one  of  her  students  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  311 

fill  the  pulpit.  At  other  times,  after  she  had  appointed  a 
substitute,  she  would  decide  at  the  last  minute  to  go  herself,  and, 
after  the  audience  at  Hawthorne  Hall  had  been  waiting  for 
perhaps  half  an  hour,  Mrs.  Eddy's  carriage  would  swing  Into 
Park  Street,  and  she  would  alight  amid  a  crowd  of  delighted 
students,  sweep  rapidly  up  the  aisle,  ascend  the  rostrum,  and 
at  once  begin  to  deliver  one  of  her  most  effective  sermons ; 
perhaps  a  discussion  of  how,  in  His  resurrection,  Christ  made 
the  highest  demonstration  of  the  healing  powers  of  Christian 
Science,  or  perhaps  a  prophetic  discourse  upon  a  text  of  which 
she  was  particularly  fond,  and  which  she  always  delivered  with 
astonishing  conviction :  "  Upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church, 
and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

LITERARY  ACTIVITIES MRS.   EDDY  AS  AN   EDITOR THE   REV.    MR. 

WIGGIN     BECOMES     HER     LITERARY    ASSISTANT HIS     PRIVATE 

ESTIMATE  OF  MRS.   EDDY  AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  reopened  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College  after  her  husband's  death  in  1882  and,  with  half  a 
dozen  of  her  students,  settled  down  to  her  old  routine  of  teach- 
ing, she  soon  began  to  plan  for  a  monthly  publication  which 
should  be  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Christian  Science.  Quite 
as  willing  to  contribute  to  the  Boston  dailies  as  she  had  been 
to  enliven  with  prose  and  verse  the  columns  of  the  more  modest 
weeklies  of  Lynn,  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  a  great  many  press  notices 
regarding  her  church  and  college,  and  it  was  Arthur  Buswell's 
business  to  take  these  about  to  the  various  newspaper  offices 
and  attempt  to  place  them.  Editors,  however,  were  often 
prejudiced  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  involved  style  and  extravagant 
claims,  and  their  unwillingness  to  print  many  of  her  contribu- 
tions suggested  to  Mr.  Buswell  and  Mrs.  Eddy  the  convenience 
of  having  a  periodical  of  their  own. 

On  April  14,  1883,  the  Journal  of  Christian  Science,  a  small 
eight-page  monthly,  made  its  appearance,  bearing  the  name 
of  Mary  B.  Glover  Eddy  as  editor.  The  new  magazine  opened 
with  a  "  prospectus  "  which  began  as  follows :  "  The  ancient 
Greek    looked    longingly    for    the    Olympiad.      The    Chaldee 

312 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  313 

watched  for  the  appearing  of  a  star ;  to  him,  no  higher  destiny 
dawned  upon  the  dome  of  being  than  that  foreshadowed  by 
the  signs  in  the  heavens."  Whether  Mrs.  Eddy  meant  to 
imply  that  so  the  modern  world  waited  for  Christian  Science, 
the  reader  must  conjecture,  for  she  does  not  say  so,  nor  does 
she  say  anything  about  the  purpose  or  policy  of  her  journal. 
The  only  sentence  in  the  prospectus  which  could  be  construed 
as  having  anytliing  to  do  with  her  magazine  is  the  following, 
which  would  seem  to  indicate  her  intended  policy  as  editor, 
though  this  is  not  very  clear: 

While  we  entertain  decided  views  as  to  the  best  method  for  elevating 
the  race  physically,  morally,  and  spiritually,  and  shall  express  these  views 
as  duty  demands,  we  shall  claim  no  especial  gifts  from  our  divine  origin, 
or  any   supernatural  power,  etc. 

The  founding  of  the  Journal  was  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant step  Mrs.  Eddy  had  taken  since  she  came  to  Boston, 
as  it  afterward  proved  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of 
extending  her  influence  and  widening  the  boundaries  of  Chris- 
tian Science.  In  the  beginning  the  magazine  had  but  a  handful 
of  subscribers,  and  the  cost  of  printing  it  was  not  more  than 
thirty  or  forty  dollars  an  issue.  This  sum  was  raised  by  vol- 
untary subscription,  nearly  all  the  Christian  Scientists  con- 
tributing money  except  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Although  her  subscription-list  was  small,  Mrs.  Eddy  knew 
what  to  do  with  her  Journal.  Copies  foimd  their  way  to  remote 
villages  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  to  lonely  places  in  Nebraska 
and  Colorado,  where  people  had  much  time  for  reflection,  little 
excitement,  and  a  great  need  to  believe  in  miracles.  The  meta- 
phor of  the  bread  cast  upon  the  waters  is  no  adequate  sugges- 


314        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

tion  of  the  result.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  Christian  Science  began 
to  be  talked  of  far  away  in  the  mountains  and  in  the  prairie 
villages.  Lonely  and  discouraged  people  brooded  over  these 
editorials  which  promised  happiness  to  sorrow  and  success  to 
failure.  The  desperately  ill  had  no  quarrel  with  the  artificial 
rhetoric  of  these  testimonials  in  which  people  declared  that  they 
had  been  snatched  from  the  brink  of  the  grave. 

Soon  after  the  Journal  was  started,  Mrs.  Emma  Hopkins, 
an  intelligent  and  sincere  young  woman,  came  to  Boston  to 
assume  the  assistant  editorship  of  the  magazine.  Mrs.  Hop- 
kins had  first  met  Mrs.  Eddy  at  the  house  of  one  of  her  friends, 
where  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  engaged  to  give  a  parlour  lecture 
on  Christian  Science.  Mrs.  Hopkins  became  deeply  interested 
in  this  new  doctrine,  and,  although  after  her  first  meeting  with 
Mrs.  Eddy  she  carried  away  an  unfavourable  impression,  she 
soon  fell  completely  under  the  spell  of  that  remarkable  per- 
sonality; thought  her  handsome,  stimulating,  inspiring,  and 
very  different  from  any  woman  she  had  ever  known.  She  en- 
tered one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  classes  and  went  through  the  same 
experience  that  sensitive  students  of  an  earlier  date  describe; 
during  the  lectures  she  felt  uplifted  and  carried  beyond  herself; 
and  in  describing  the  effect  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  words  upon  her 
hearers,  Mrs.  Hopkins  uses  the  same  figure  that  we  have  heard 
before  in  Lynn — that  of  the  wind  stirring  the  wheat-field. 
When  Mrs.  Hopkins  became  assistant  editor  of  the  Journal, 
she  went  to  live  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  in  Columbus  Avenue, 
where  the  editorial  work  was  done.  She  remained  there  for 
two  years,  until,  worn  out  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  tyranny  and  selfish- 
ness, and  saddened  by  her  own  disillusionment,  Mrs.  Hopkins 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  315 

left  the  house  and  never  communicated  with  Mrs.  Eddy  again. 
Mrs.  Eddy  afterward  attacked  her  savagely  in  the  Journal, 
and  applied  to  her  the  old  terms  of  opprobrium. 

In  the  fall  of  1885  Mrs.  Sarah  H.  Crosse  succeeded  Mrs. 
Hopkins  as  assistant  editor  of  the  Journal,  and  she,  in  turn, 
was  succeeded  by  Frank  Mason,  who  became  both  editor  and 
publisher  about  the  end  of  1888. 

In  its  early  years  the  Journal  of  Christian  Science  was  almost 
as  much  Mrs.  Eddy  as  was  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College.  At  sixty-two  Mrs.  Eddy  fell  to  playing  editor  with 
the  same  zest  with  which  she  had  entered  upon  the  activities 
of  her  church  and  college.  She  wrote  much  of  the  Journal 
herself,  and  what  she  did  not  originate  she  selected  and  largely 
rewrote,  keeping  a  sharp  eye  on  the  articles  and  editorials 
written  by  her  assistants  and  revising  them  very  thoroughly. 
She  was  especially  solicitous  about  the  articles  which  dealt 
with  herself,  and  she  was  almost  equally  anxious  that  the 
articles  should  deal  with  little  else.  The  Journal  of  Christian 
Science  was  then  scarcely  more  than  the  monthly  gazette  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  doings — the  diary  which  chronicled  her  thoughts 
and  activities,  and  which  minutely  recorded  the  tributes  of  her 
courtiers.  She  no  longer  had  to  get  out  a  new  edition  of 
Science  and  Health  to  give  vent  to  her  feelings  about  a  newly 
discovered  mesmerist.  Once  a  month  she  audited  her  accounts, 
and  the  Journal  was  her  clearing-house.  Through  its  columns 
the  new  favourite  was  exalted  and  the  old  relegated  to  his 
place  among  the  mesmerised.  In  one  column  we  find,  in  large 
type,  a  card  of  thanks  for  a  twenty-one-pound  turkey  which 
some   one   had   sent   for   Mrs.   Eddy's   New   Year's   dinner;  in 


316        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

another  a  tirade  upon  animal  magnetism;  and  in  still  another 
the  following  acknowledgment  of  Christmas  gifts : 

From  Bradford  Sherman,  C.  S.,  and  his  wife  Mrs.  Mattie  Sherman,  C.  S., 
of  Chicago,— Wild  Flowers  of  Colorado,  a  large  elegantly  bomid  and 
embellished  book,  containing  twenty-two  paintings  of  the  gorgeous  flowers 
of  the  Occident. 

From  Mrs.  Hannah  A.  Larminie,  C.  S.,  of  Chicago,— a  book  with  a 
sweet,  illustrated  poem,  and  a  very  elegant  pocket-handkerchief. 

From  Mrs.  Mattie  Williams,  C.  S.,— a  large,  fine  photograph  of  her 
beautiful  home  in  Columbus,  Wisconsin.  On  the  piazza  are  herself  and 
husband;  on  the  grounds  in  front,  her  children  with  their  bicycles. 

Mary  B.  G.  Eddy.* 

This  annual  acknowledgment  of  Mrs,  Eddy's  Christmas  gifts 
in  the  Journal  grew  more  formidable  as  the  years  went  by. 
In  1889  Mrs.  Eddy  listed  her  presents  as  follows: 

LIST  OF  INDIVIDUAL  OFFERINGS 
Eider-down  pillow,  white  satin  with  gold  embroidery.  Eider-down  pillow, 
blue  silk,  hand-painted,  and  fringed  with  lace.  Pastel  painting  of  Minne- 
haha Falls,  with  silvered  easel.  Silver  nut-pick  set.  Painted  Sevres  China 
tea-set.  Book,  Beautiful  Story,  576  pages,  with  steel  engravings  and 
lithographs.  The  Dore  Bible  Gallery,  embellished.  Brussels-lace  tie.  Silken 
sofa-scarf,  inwrought  with  gold.  Pansy  bed,  in  water-colours,  with  bronze 
frame.  Stand  for  lemonade-set.  Silver  combination-set.  Silk  and  lace 
mat.  Embroidered  linen  handkerchief,  in  silken  sachet-holder.  Chinese 
jar.  Silk-embroidered  plush  table-scarf.  Connected  reclining-pillows.  Work 
of  art.  White  and  Franconia  Mountains.  Transparent  painting  of  Jacque- 
minots. Satin  and  lace  pin-cushion.  Barometer.  Cabinet  photograph- 
holder.  Perfumery.  Large  variety  of  books  and  poems.  Face  of  the 
Madonna,  framed  in  oak  and  ivory.  Moon-mirror,  with  silver  setting,  and 
"  the  Man  in  the  Moon."  Hand-painted  blotter.  Embroidered  linen  hand- 
kerchiefs. Blue  silk-embroidered  shawl.  Plush  portemonnaie.  Openwork 
linen  handkerchief.  Charm  slumber-robe.  Bible  Pearls  of  Promise.  Large 
white  silk  banner  with  silver  fringe.  Sachet  bags.  Two  velvet  table  mats. 
Silver  holder  for  stereoscopic  views.  Two  fat  Kentucky  turkeys.  Hosts 
of  bouquets  and  Christmas  cards. 

The   following  year,   1890,  her   publisher,   Mr.   William   G. 

^thrintiun  Science  Journal,  .Taniiary.  1S86. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  317 

Nixon,  tried  to  persuade  Mrs.   Eddy  to  omit   a  detailed  list 
of  her  Christmas  offerings,  and  she  wrote  him : 

I  requested  you  through  Mr.  Frye  to  reinstate  my  notice  of  my  Christmas 
gifts,  for  the  reasons  I  herein  name. 

Students  are  constantly  telling  me  how  they  felt  the  mental  impression 
this  year  to  make  me  no  present,  and  when  they  overcame  it  were  strength- 
ened and  blessed.  For  this  reason — viz.,  to  discourage  mental  malpractice 
and  to  encourage  those  who  beat  it — I  want  that  notice  published. 

Many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  contributions  to  the  Journal  have 
been  collected  and  reprinted  in  the  volume  known  as  Miscel- 
laneous Writings.  While  even  in  the  very  latest  edition  of 
Science  and  Health  the  flavour  of  Mrs.  Eddy  lingers  on  every 
page,  like  a  dominating  strain  of  blood  that  cannot  be  bred  out, 
the  book  has  been  rearranged  and  retouched  by  so  many  hands 
that  the  personal  element  has  been  greatly  moderated.  In 
the  old  files  of  the  Journal,  however,  we  seem  to  get  Mrs.  Eddy 
with  singular  directness  and  to  come  into  very  intimate  contact 
with  her.  When  she  is  angry  one  can  fairly  hear  the  voice 
behind  the  type,  and  when  she  bestows  royal  favours  one  can 
see  the  smile  at  the  other  end  of  the  copy.  These  contributions 
were  usually  written  in  precipitate  haste,  and  reached  the  de- 
spairing printer  at  the  last  possible  moment,  almost  unin- 
telligible, full  of  inaccuracies  and  errors,  and,  except  for  an 
occasional  period,  innocent  of  all  punctuation.  The  copy- 
reader  or  assistant  editor  did  what  he  could  at  editing  it  as 
he  fed  it  to  the  compositors — and  the  point  is  that  he  did  not 
do  too  much.  In  the  columns  of  the  Journal  one  gets  Mrs. 
Eddy's  pages  hot  from  her  hand,  as  if  they  had  not  been 
touched  since  the  copyboy  dashed  with  them  out  of  the  door  of 
571  Columbus  Avenue.     In  her  editorial  function  she  is  more 


318        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

at  ease  than  in  her  more  strictly  sacerdotal  one,  and  in  her 
contributions  to  her  paper  she  sounds  all  the  stops  of  her  in- 
strument. As  she  says,  she  "  commands  and  countermands  " 
and  "  thunders  to  the  sinner,"  but  for  happier  occasions  she 
has  a  lighter  tone,  and  she  is  by  turns  peppery  and  playful. 
A  student  in  Chicago  offends,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  her  a  "suck- 
ling "  and  a  "  petty  western  editress."  Her  students  send 
her  a  watch  at  Christmastide,  and  she  thanks  them  for  their 
"  timely  "  gift.  They  give  her  a  fish-pond,  and  she  asks  them 
to  pond-er. 

During  the  early  years  Mrs.  Eddy  opened  each  number  of 
the  Journal  with  a  crashing  editorial,  and,  in  addition  to  this, 
she  conducted,  under  her  own  name,  a  "  Questions  and  Answers  " 
column,  in  which  she  met  and  settled  queries  like  the  following: 

Has  Mrs.  Eddy   lost  her  power  to  heal? 

Has  the  sun  forgotten  to  shine  and  the  planets  to  revolve  around  it? 
Who  was  it  discovered,  demonstrated  and  teaches  Christian  Science?  etc. 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  hesitate  to  answer  personal  criticism  and 
to  reply  to  gossip  in  the  columns  of  her  paper.  On  one  occa- 
sion she  replies  to  the  old  story,  which  was  forever  cropping 
up  in  Lynn,  that  she  was  addicted  to  the  use  of  morphine. 
She  says  that  when  a  mesmerist  was  attempting  to  poison  her, 
she  did  take  large  doses  of  morphine  to  see  whether  she  were 
still  susceptible  to  poison.  "  Years  ago,  when  the  mental  mal- 
practice of  poison  was  undertaken  by  a  mesmerist,  to  thwart 
that  design,  I  experimented  by  taking  some  large  doses  of 
morphine  to  watch  the  effect,  and  I  say  it  with  tearful  thanks, 
the  drug  had  no  effect  upon  me  whatever, — the  hour  had  struck, 
*if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them.'  "  ^ 
'  Christian  Science  Journal,  April,  1885. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  319 

Several  years  later  the  Journal  takes  up  some  petty  criti- 
cism which  had  been  made  regarding  Mrs.  Eddy's  dress : 

Such  views  of  Christian  Science  are  well  illustrated  in  a  little  incident 
that  happened  to  the  author  of  Science  and  Health  a  year  or  two  ago, 
when  she  was  the  active  pastor  of  the  Scientist  church  in  Boston.  She 
had  a  custom  of  answering  from  the  platform,  questions  that  were 
passed  up  in  writing.  On  one  occasion  she  found  this  inquiry,  "  How  can 
a  Christian  Scientist  afford  to  wear  diamonds  and  be  clad  in  purple 
velvet?"  She  stepped  forward  and  answered,  "This  ring  that  I  wear 
was  given  me  several  years  ago  as  a  thank-offering  from  one  I  had  brought 
from  death  back  to  life;  for  a  long  time  I  could  not  wear  it,  but  my 
husband  induced  me  to  accustom  myself  by  putting  it  on  in  the  night,  and 
finally  I  came  to  see  it  only  as  a  sign  of  recognition  and  gratitude  of  my 
master,  and  to  love  it  as  such;  this  purple  velvet  is  'purple,'  but  it  is 
velveteen  that  I  paid  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  for,  and  I  have  worn  it 
for  several  years,  but  it  seems  to  be  perpetually  renewed,  like  the  widow's 
cruse." ' 

But  the  discussion  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  affairs  did  not 
end  with  her  signed  contributions.  During  the  first  five  years 
of  the  magazine's  existence  Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  theme  of  almost 
every  article,  testimonial,  and  letter.  There  are  poems  to  the 
"  bold  innovator  in  the  realms  of  thought,"  and  scattered  here 
and  there  are  miscellaneous  extracts  of  which  the  following, 
signed  "  Lily  of  Israel,"  will  illustrate  the  drift  and  character : 

PROPHECY 
She  existed  from  the  beginning  before  all  ages,  and  will  not  cease 
to  exist  throughout  all  ages;  it  is  she  who  shall  create  in  Heaven  a  light 
which  shall  never  be  extinguished;  she  shall  rise  in  the  midst  of  her 
people,  and  she  shall  be  blessed  over  all  those  who  are  blessed  by  God, 
for  she  shall  open  the  doors  of  the  East,  and  the  Desired  of  Nations  shall 
appear.* 

The  "  Healing  Department  "  of  the  Journal,  which  held  a 
prominent  place  and  was  perhaps  the  strongest  element  in  its 

'  Christian    Science   Journal,   February,    1889. 
*  Christian  Science  Journal,  May,  1885. 


320        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

success,  reports  at  length  the  alleged  cures  made  by  the  prac- 
tising healers  and,  in  many  instances,  by  the  mere  reading  of 
Science  and  Health.  While  this  department  was  of  great  value 
in  giving  publicity  to  the  claims  of  Christian  Science  its  recital 
of  the  details  of  illness  and  suffering  make  painful  reading  and 
seem  rather  too  intimately  personal  for  quotation.  A  few  of 
the  headings  will  indicate  the  nature  of  these  communications: 
"  Liver  Complaint  of  Long  Standing  Cured  by  Half  an  Hour's 
Talk " ;  "  Cancer  on  the  Face,  Badly  Broken  Out,  Cured  in 
One  Week  " ;  "  Heart  Trouble  and  Dropsy,  with  Great  Swelling 
of  the  Limbs,  of  Thirty  Years'  Standing,  Cured  in  Two  Treat- 
ments " ;  "  Bright's  Disease  and  also  Scrofulous  Bunches  on 
the  Neck  Cured  in  Three  Weeks  " ;  "  Woman  Had  Twenty-nine 
Surgical  Operations  " ;  "  Had  Seventeen  Physicians  " ;  "  Cancer 
and  Lockjaw";  "Cured  of  Both  Paralysis  and  Mormonism." 
One  amusing  report  states  that  "  a  girl  nineteen  years  old 
who  was  dumb  and  had  never  spoken,  commenced  talking  after 
her  third  treatment  as  if  she  was  thinking  aloud,  and  has  talked 
ever  since."  Among  these  notes  on  healing,  the  following,  from 
the  Journal  of  October,  1887,  deserves  mention: 

DOG  AND  RATTLESNAKE 
Deah  Journal:  Our  clog  was  bitten  by  a  rattlesnake  on  the  tongue 
a  short  time  ago,  and  the  verdict,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  was  death; 
but  through  the  understanding  of  God's  promise  that  we  shall  handle 
serpents  and  not  be  harmed,  if  we  but  believe,  I  was  able  to  demonstrate 
over  the  belief  in  four  days.     The  dog  is  now  as  well  as  ever. 

Mrs.   M.   E.   Darnell. 

In  the  Journal  of  April,  1885,  occurs  an  interesting  para- 
graph regarding  General  Grant  (then  in  his  last  illness),  which 
asserts    that   his   physicians    "  are   hastening   him   toward   the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  321 

manifestations  of  the  death  symptoms  they  hold  so  definitely 
in  mind,  with  all  the  formulating  speed  they  are  capable  of." 
From  1883  to  1887  the  Journal  devotes  considerable  space 
to  mesmerism,  although  some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  besought 
her  to  place  less  emphasis  upon  this  doctrine.  In  the  Journal 
of  October,  1885,  she  rebukes  such  conservative  followers 
sharply : 

In  my  public  works  I  lay  bare  the  capacity,  in  belief,  of  animal  magnet- 
ism, to  break  the  Decalogue,  to  murder,  steal,  comuiit  adultery,  etc. 

Those  who  deny  my  right  or  wisdom  to  expose  its  crimes,  are  either 
participants  in  this  evil,  afraid  of  its  supposed  power  or  ignorant  of  it. 
Those  accusing  me  of  covering  this  iniquity,  are  zealous,  who,  like  Peter, 
sleep  when  the  Teacher  bids  them  watch;  and  when  the  hour  of  trial  comes 
would  cut  off  somebody's  ears. 

In  1887  a  department  devoted  to  Malicious  Animal  Magnet- 
ism becomes  one  of  the  regular  features  of  the  Journal,  and 
continues  for  some  years.  At  the  head  of  this  department 
regularly  occurs  the  following  quotation  from  Nehemiah :  "Also 
they  have  dominion  over  our  bodies,  and  over  our  cattle,  at  their 
'pleasure,  and  we  are  in  great  distress."  In  this  department 
persons  who  believe  that  they  have  been  injured  in  their  business 
or  tormented  in  body  and  soul  by  mesmerists  recount  their 
symptoms  and  struggles.  One  woman  is  tortured  by  a  hatred 
and  distrust  of  Mrs.  Eddy  (it  was  by  producing  a  distrust  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  that  the  mesmerists  most  frequently  harried  their 
victims),  and  she  suffers  under  this  "  belief  "  until  she  is  treated 
for  it  and  cured  by  a  fellow-Scientist.  Another  is  tormented 
by  a  desire  to  write,  and  the  tempter  whispers  to  her  that  she 
"  can  write  as  good  a  book  as  Mrs.  Eddy's."  Mrs.  Carrie 
Snider,   a  prominent  worker  in  the  New  York  church,  writes 


322        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

at  a  length  of  five  pages  to  describe  how  malicious  mesmerism 
killed  her  husband,  Fremont  Snider.  He  was,  she  says,  under 
tlic  treatment  of  two  healers  whose  minds  were  not  in  accord, 
and  the  thought  from  one  confused  the  thought  from  the  other, 
leaving  him  to  die  in  the  cross-fire.  She  was  confident  that  if 
he  had  left  the  treatment  of  his  case  with  her,  he  would  have 
recovered.  Even  after  a  physician  had  pronounced  him  dead 
and  liad  sent  for  the  coroner,  Mrs.  Snider  treated  her  husband, 
with  some  success,  she  says,  adding  that  if  she  had  had  help 
she  could  even  then  have  saved  him.° 

The  history  of  the  growth  of  the  belief  in  malicious  mesmerism, 
as  one  may  follow  it  in  the  early  files  of  the  Journal,  is  interest- 
ing and  illuminating.  Here  one  sees  how  this  doctrine,  which 
was  so  singularly  a  temperamental  product,  born  of  a  personal 
hatred  and  developed  to  meet  personal  needs  and  to  explain 
personal  caprices,  begins  to  control  the  conduct  and  affections 
of  people  whose  natures  and  obligations  were  very  different 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's.  So  long  as  the  belief  in  demonology  was 
a  mere  personal  vagary  of  Mrs.  Eddy's,  explaining  her  quarrels, 
affecting  her  spoons  and  pillows  and  telegrams,  it  was  as  harm- 
less as  it  was  amusing.  But  as  one  reads  the  letters  from  per- 
sons who  ascribe  the  estrangement  of  friends  and  even  the  death 
of  children  to  the  ill-will  of  their  neighbours  and  fellow-towns- 
men, one  begins  to  feel  the  serious  side  of  this  doctrine.  The 
reader  must  possess  very  great  hardihood  indeed  if  he  can 
follow  without  sympathy  one  letter  from  Pierre,  Dak.,  which 
recounts  the  story  of  the  death  of  two  young  children  under 
the  treatment  of  their  zealous  mother. 

»  Fromont  D.  Snider  died  of  heart-disease,  December  17,  1888. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  323 

The  mother  was  the  wife  of  a  banker  in  Pierre,  a  woman  of 
unusual  force  of  character,  who  had  been  hberally  educated  in 
Germany.  Her  husband  was  a  young  man  of  energy  and 
promise,  and  they  were  both  extravagantly  fond  of  their  chil- 
dren. The  wife  took  a  course  of  lessons  under  a  Christian 
Science  practitioner  in  Des  Moines,  la.,  and  returned  to  her 
home  in  Dakota  a  devout  convert.  One  of  her  children,  a  little 
boy  four  years  old,  fell  ill ;  she  treated  him  without  the  aid  of 
a  physician,  and  he  died.  Some  months  later  a  second  child, 
a  baby  eleven  months  old,  began  to  pine.  She  believed  that 
he  was  the  victim  of  malicious  animal  magnetism,  exercised 
by  the  members  of  the  Methodist  Church  which  she  had  left 
after  becoming  a  Christian  Scientist.  She  even  believed  that 
the  Methodists  were  praying  for  the  child's  death,  and  fled  to 
Des  Moines  with  the  baby,  where  he  grew  better ;  but  when  she 
returned  home  he  became  worse  again.  The  father  was  then 
in  New  York  on  business,  and  the  mother,  on  her  own  responsi- 
bihty,  undertook  the  case,  telegraphing  to  E.  J.  Foster  Eddy, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  adopted  son,  for  absent  treatment  for  the  child. 
For  ten  days  the  misc,uided  woman  watched  over  her  baby  and 
treated  him  against  malicious  mesmerism,  which  she  believed 
brought  on  the  spasms  and  convulsions.  She  did  not  notify 
her  husband  that  the  baby  was  dangerously  ill  until  she  tele- 
graphed word  of  its  death,  nine  hours  after  death  occurred; 
and  for  those  nine  hours  after  the  child  had  ceased  to  breathe 
she  treated  and  prayed  over  him,  not  permitting  herself  to 
shed  a  tear  or  to  "  entertain  the  thought  of  death,"  confidently 
expecting  that  his  eyes  would  open  again.  This  experience 
and  the  subsequent  indignation  of  the  townspeople  seem  to  have 


324        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

been  too  much  for  a  friend  and  fellow-citizen  who  was  there 
visiting  at  the  house,  and  who  assisted  in  treating  the  child, 
for  she  writes  Mrs.  Eddy  an  imploring  letter,  asking,  "  Why 
this  termination?"  and  declaring:  "We  recognised  no  disease, 
and  as  first  symptoms  would  appear — ^beliefs  of  paralysis, 
spasms,  fever,  etc. — we  would  realise  the  allness  of  God,  and 
they  would  disappear."  But  the  letter  itself  must  be  given  in 
full.  Its  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the  baby  and  the  terrible 
fortitude  of  the  mother  sound  like  a  passage  from  the  earlier 
and  harsher  chapters  of  religious  history,  which  so  often  make 
us  wonder  whether  there  is  anything  else  in  the  world  that  can 
be  quite  so  cruel  as  the  service  of  an  ideal. 

Pierre,  Dakota,  Jan.   31,   1889. 

Last  September  Mrs.  N '  took  a  course  of  lectures  in  Science  in  Des 

Moines,  and  returned  to  her  home  here,  and  was  the  instrument  of  great 
good.     Many  were  healed  physically  who  sought  also  the  spiritual  benefits. 

Instead  of  working  for  the  church,  of  which  she  had  been  a  consistent 
and  active  member,  she  gave  all  her  time  to  Science.  This  stirred  up  the 
error  in  the  minds  of  the  brothers  and  sisters, — and  caused  the  fiery 
darts  to  be  mentally  hurled  at  her  and  they  seemingly  penetrated  her 
weakest  point,  her  darling  baby,  eleven  months  old,  who  seemed  in  December 
to  be  sinking  under  the  blows.  As  Herod  was  seeking  the  young  child's 
life  they  thought  it  best  to  flee  for  a  time  from  this  mental  atmosphere, 

and  went  to  Des  Moines  where  he  grew  better.     Mr.  N being  obliged 

to  go  to  New  York,  and  Mrs.  N hearing  that  mortal  mind  had  got 

hold  of  some  of  her  patients — determined  to  return  to  Pierre  to  look 
after   their   spiritual  welfare. 

I  returned  with  her,  and  almost  all  our  time  has  been  spent  in  reading 
the  Bible  and  "  Science  and  Health  "  to  those  who  were  interested.  Min- 
isters called  upon  us  and  denounced  Science  in  the  strongest  terms;  and 
one  Sunday  every  minister  in  the  place  preached  against  it,  not  knowing 
they  could  "  do  nothing  against  the  Truth."  We  continued  working  quietly 
and  speaking  only  to  those  who  came  to  see  us. 

"  The  name  Is  withheld  In  consideration  for  the  family  most  Intimately  con- 
cerned In  this  case.  The  interested  reader,  however,  may  refer  to  the  files  of 
the  ChriHiran  Science  Journal,  March,  1889,  pages  637-639,  where  this  letter 
was  originally  printed  and  where  the  full  name  is  used. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  325 

Finally  little  Edward  seemingly  succumbed  to  an  attack,  while  we  were 
holding  a  meeting  in  the  parlour.  To  all  appearance  he  was  gone,  but 
we  knew  it  was  animal  magnetism,  and  treating  him  for  it  he  revived. 
We  wrestled  till  daybreak  and  though  there  was  little  seeming  improvement, 
we  realised  that  "  God's  will  is  done  "  and  felt  that  the  baby  was  healed. 

During  the  ten  days  that  followed,  the  wiles  of  the  evil  one  appeared, 

but   they  were  overcome.     Mrs.   N telegraphed   Dr.   Foster   Eddy   for 

help,  and  felt  that  help  came.  The  telegraph  operator  here,  not  knowing 
the  influence  of  mortal  mind,  divulged  the  telegram,  and  this  made  the 
battle  harder.  Again  we  telegraphed  for  help  and  again  the  cry  went  out 
"  They've  sent  for  help."  At  least  six  times  little  Edward  seemed  to  have 
passed.  We  recognised  it  as  another  temptation,  took  up  animal  magnetism 
and   each  time  he  rallied.     Finally   about  5:30  a.m.   of  Friday,  Jan.   25th, 

he  passed  on.     I  took  him  on  my  lap.     Mrs.  N and  I  realised  it  must 

be  the  last  temptation,  hence  the  greatest.  We  had  no  fear  and  did  not 
admit  he  had  passed  on  for  several  hours.  We  kept  reading  the  promises 
"  according  to  thy  faith,"  etc.,  and  did  not  call  an  undertaker  until  evening. 

When   Mrs.   N 's  little  Philip  passed   on  a   few  months  ago   her   faith 

alone  should  have  raised  him.  But  this  time  her  faith  was  coupled  with 
understanding  and  did  not  waver  for  a  moment.  Why  this  termination? 
I  wish  we  could  have  some  light  on  the  subject. 

We  recognised  no  disease,  and  as  first  symptoms  would  appear— beliefs 
of  paralysis,  spasms,  fever,  etc. — we  would  realise  the  allness  of  God, 
and  they  would  disappear.  It  was  a  clear  case  of  ignorant  and  malicious 
magnetism.     Why  was  it  not  mastered? 

We  are  told  that  some  church  members  have  been  praying  that  "  God 
would  take  the  child  "  in  order  that  the  parents  might  see  the  error  of 
their  way,  and  return — not  to  God,  but — to  the  M.  E.  followers.  Now 
comes  an  unprecedented  history.  Saturday  morning  a  great  tumult  arose. 
The  M.  E.  minister  gathered  a  crowd  around  him  on  the  street  and 
denounced  this  pernicious  doctrine,  till  the  people  were  infuriated,  and 
threatened  mob  law.  A  meeting  was  called  at  the  public  hall.  The 
conservative  element  succeeded,  notwithstanding  the  excitement,  in  getting 
a  respectful  committee  appointed,  and  an  order  was  served  on  myself 
and  another  Scientist  to  meet  this  committee  at  the  Court  House  at  4  p.m. 

Mrs.   N accompanied  us  and  on  the  way  we  met  the  coroner,  sheriff, 

jury  and  two  "Medicine  men"  who  came  to  demand  an  inquest.  All 
returned  with  us  to  the  house.  The  questions  and  the  manner  of  the 
M.D.'s  were  insulting  in  the  extreme.  Our  answers  were  mostly  from  the 
Bible. 

All   admitted  the  unblemished   reputation  of  Mr.  and   Mrs.  N ,  that 

Mrs.    N was   a   faithful,   loving   mother;   but   they   could   not   tolerate 

such  a  religious  conviction.     Then  we  all  went  to  the  Court  House  and  a 


326        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

committee  told  us  that  the  sentiment  of  the  community  was  (as  in  Acts 
xiii.  50)  that  we  leave  town. 

I  said  to  the  committee  that  I  came  to  visit  Mrs.  N and  not  pro- 
fessionally; that  she  was  in  trouble  and  there  was  no  power  to  drive  me 
out. 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Journal  is  printed  an  extract 
from  a  letter  written  by  the  mother  herself,  in  which  she  main- 
tains that  the  baby's  illness  was  not  of  a  bodily  nature,  but  was 
clearly  the  effect  of  animal  magnetism  working  directly  upon 
the  brain: 

Little  Edward  slept  and  ate  well  as  a  rule.  He  had  no  bowel  affection, 
as  the  papers  have  stated.  All  the  attacks  were  in  belief,  in  form  of 
brain  trouble,  and  plainly  from  animal  magnetism;  the  prayers  of  church 
members  and  the  whole  thought  of  the  place  being  expressed  in  the  hope 

that  "  God  would  remove  the  N s'  child,  so  that  they  might  come  back 

into  the  church."     At  two  o'clock  on  the  day  that  he  passed,  I  sent   for 

Mr.  N [the  father],  and  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  I  called  the 

undertaker.  We  buried  the  little  boy  ourselves,  quietly,  without  any 
minister  present,  being  accompanied  by  a  number  who  believe  in  Christian 
Science  because  it  has  healed  them. 

Our  trials  have  been  severe,  but  we  work  to  stand  fast.  We  are 
determined  to  demonstrate  the  nothingness  of  this  seeming  power. 

This  case  is  chosen  for  illustration  for  the  reason  that  the 
parents  of  these  children  were  not  ignorant  or  colourless  people ; 
they  were  not  mystics  or  dreamers  or  in  any  way  "  different.'* 
They  were  young,  ambitious,  warm-hearted,  and  affectionate; 
they  loved  each  other  and  their  children,  and  their  home  was 
full  of  cordiality  and  kindliness.  Their  children  were  fine  chil- 
dren ;  one,  now  grown,  has  become  a  young  scholar  of  promise. 
The  woman  was  not  a  religious  fanatic,  but  a  young  mother. 
She  could  combat  "  the  last  temptation  "  over  her  dead  baby 
simply  because  she  believed  with  all  her  heart  and  soul  that  it 
lay  with  her,  as  a  test  of  her  faith,  whether  her  child  lived 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  S^l 

or  died.  Logically  there  was  nothing  extravagant  about  her 
conduct.  The  martyrdoms  of  a  thousand  years  have  proved 
what  men  and  women  can  do  and  endure  under  the  tyranny 
of  an  idea. 

Whoever  studies  the  old  files  of  the  Journal  from  1883  to 
1887  must  note  the  rapid  growth  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  sect  during 
those  years.  In  the  first  number  of  the  Journal,  April,  1883, 
appear  the  professional  cards  of  fourteen  authorised  healers ; 
in  April,  1885,  forty-three  professional  healers  advertise  in 
this  way;  and  in  the  Journal  of  April,  1887,  are  the  cards  of 
one  hundred  and  ten  Christian  Science  practitioners.  In  1887 
nineteen  Christian  Science  "  Institutes  "  and  "  academies  "  are 
advertised.  The  graduates  of  these  schools  usually  went  at 
once  into  practice,  although  sometimes  they  first  went  to  Boston 
to  take  the  normal  course  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  college.  These  pre- 
paratory schools  were  located  in  various  cities  in  California, 
Nebraska,  Colorado,  Wisconsin,  Ohio,  Massachusetts,  and  New 
York.  In  1886  the  National  Christian  Scientists'  Association 
was  formed  with  representatives  from  almost  every  State  in  the 
Union,  which  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

In  the  Journal  of  1887  and  1888  one  notices  certain  articles 
and  editorials  signed  J.  H.  W.,  or  Phare  Pleigh,  the  initials  and 
pen-name  of  the  Rev.  James  Henry  WIggin,  who,  In  1885, 
became  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  adviser.  Mr.  WiggIn  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Meadvllle  Theological  Seminary  In  1861,  and 
became  a  Unitarian  minister.  In  1875  he  retired  from  the 
active  ministry  and  devoted  himself  to  writing  and  editing. 
An  old  friend  of  John  Wilson,  of  the  University  Press,  Mr. 
WIggIn   found  plenty   to  do   in   proof-reading,   revising,   and 


328        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

editing  manuscripts,  in  annotating  and  making  indices  to  theo- 
logical and  scholarly  works. 

One  day  in  August,  1885,  Calvin  Frye  called  at  Mr.  Wiggin's 
office  in  the  old  Boston  Music  Hall,  and  introduced  himself  as 
the  secretary  of  a  lady  who  had  written  a  book,  the  manuscript 
of  which  she  wished  Mr.  Wiggin  to  revise,  adding  that  she 
also  wished  him  to  prepare  an  index  for  her  work.  A  few  days 
later  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  came  to  see  Mr.  Wiggin,^  bringing 
with  her  a  bulky  package  of  manuscript  which  proved  to  be 
a  fresh  version  of  that  much-written  book.  Science  and  Health, 
which  she  had  just  rewritten  from  the  fourth  edition,  1884<. 
She  gave  Mr.  Wiggin  to  understand  that,  while  the  manuscript 
was  practically  ready  for  the  printer,  it  needed  the  touch  of  a 
literary  man.  She  agreed  to  his  terms  and  withdrew.  Mr. 
Wiggin,  who  was  just  about  to  start  away  on  his  summer 
vacation,  put  the  package  into  his  bag  and  took  it  up  to  the 
mountains  with  him.  When  he  examined  the  manuscript  later, 
lie  found  that  a  revision  of  it  was  no  holiday  task.  The  faulty 
spelling  and  punctuation  could  have  been  corrected  readily 
enough,  as  well  as  the  incorrect  historical  references  and  the 
misuse  of  words ;  but  the  whole  work  was  so  involved,  formless, 
and  contradictory  that  Mr.  Wiggin  put  the  manuscript  away 
and  thought  no  more  about  it  until  he  returned  to  Boston. 
Then  he  saw  Mrs.  Eddy  and  told  her  that  he  could  do  nothing 
by  merely  correcting  her  manuscript ;  that  to  improve  it  he 
would  have  largely  to  rewrite  it.  To  his  surprise,  she  willingly 
consented  to  this.     During  the  autumn  of  1885  Mr.  Wiggin 

-a-lZ?^  ".i,^''""^'"i^  account  of  this  first  interview  between  Mrs..  Eddv  and  Mr. 
u -t  Tv7,;.,.''  lf«<J<'r  IS  roferrod  to  a  pamphlet,  Hoic  Reverend  Wiggin  Rewrote 
il)n.  Eddy  a  Book,  by  Livingston  Wright. 


Photog^raph  by  A.  V.  Brow 

THE  REVEREND  JAMES  HENRY  WTGGIN 
Who  was  for  four  years  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  adviser 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  329 

occupied  himself  with  this  task,  which  Mrs.  Eddy  carefully 
supervised  to  see  that  he  did  not  in  the  least  modify  her  views 
and  that  her  favourite  phrases  were  allowed  to  stand. 

Beginning  with  the  first  edition  of  the  book  (1875),  and 
going  through  the  successive  editions  up  to  1886,  one  sees 
that  what  Mr.  Wiggin  did  for  Science  and  Health  was  to  put 
into  intelligible  Enghsh  the  ideas  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had  so 
befogged  in  the  stating  of  them.  Any  one  who  reads  a  chapter, 
a  page,  or  even  a  paragraph  of  the  1884  edition,  and  compares 
it  with  the  same  portion  in  the  edition  of  1886,  will  see  the 
more  obvious  part  of  Mr.  Wiggln's  work.  Take,  for  example, 
the  following  paragraph   (1881<  edition): 

What  is  man?  Brains,  heart,  blood,  or  the  entire  human  structure? 
If  he  is  one  or  all  of  the  component  parts  of  the  body,  when  you 
amputate  a  limb,  you  have  taken  away  a  portion  of  man,  and  the  surgeon 
destroys  manhood,  and  worms  are  the  annihilators  of  man.  But  losing  a 
limb,  or  injuring  structure,  is  sometimes  the  quickener  of  manliness;  and 
the  unfortunate  cripple  presents  more  nobility  than  the  statuesque  outline, 
whereby  we  find  "  a  man's  a  man,  for  a'  that." 

Mr.  Wiggin's  revision  of  this  passage  reads : 

What  is  man?  Brains,  heart,  blood,  the  material  structure?  If  he  is 
but  a  material  body,  when  you  amputate  a  limb,  you  must  takp  away 
a  portion  of  the  man;  the  surgeon  can  destroy  manhood,  and  the  worms 
annihilate  it.  But  the  loss  of  a  limb  or  injury  to  a  tissue,  is  sometimes  the 
quickener  of  manliness,  and  the  unfortunate  cripple  may  present  more  of 
it  than  the  statuesque  athlete, — teaching  us,  by  his  very  deprivations,  that 
"  a  man's  a  man,  for  a'  that." 

In  the  above  example  Mr.  Wiggin's  changes  are  only  with 
regard  to  composition,  such  as  any  theme-reader  might  suggest 
in  the  work  of  an  untrained  student.  But  in  many  instances 
he  was  able  to  be  of  even  greater  assistance  to  Mrs.  Eddy  by 


330        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

helping  her  to  give  some  sort  of  clearness  and  consistency  to 

her  theology.     In  her  chapter  on  the  Atonement  (1884)  Mrs. 

Eddy  says: 

The  glorious  spiritual  signification  of  the  life  and  not  death  of  our 
Master — for  he  never  died — was  laying  down  all  of  earth  to  instruct 
his  enemies  the  way  to  Heaven,  showing  in  the  most  sublime  and  un- 
equivocal sense  how  Heaven  is  obtained.  The  blood  of  Jesus  was  not  as 
much  offered  on  the  cross  as  before  those  closing  scenes  of  his  earth  mission. 
The  spiritual  meaning  of  blood  is  offering  sacrifice,  and  the  efficacy  of 
his  life  offering  was  greater  than  that  of  his  blood  spilled  upon  the  cross. 
It  was  the  consecration  of  his  whole  being  upon  the  altar  of  Love,  a 
deathless  offering  to  Spirit.  O,  highest  sense  of  human  affections  and 
higher  spiritual  conceptions  of  our  Infinite  Father  and  Mother,  show  us 
what  is  Love! 

Mr.  Wiggin's  revision  of  this  passage  reads : 

The  material  blood  of  Jesus  was  no  more  efficacious  to  cleanse  from 
sin,  when  it  was  shed  upon  the  "  accursed  tree,"  than  when  it  was  flowing 
in  his  veins  as  he  went  daily  about  his  Father's  business.  His  spiritual 
flesh  and  blood  were  his  Life;  and  they  truly  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his 
blood,  who  partake  of  that  Life.  The  spiritual  meaning  of  blood  is  sacri- 
fice. The  efficacy  of  Jesus'  spirit-offering  was  infinitely  greater  than  can 
be  expressed  by  our  mortal  sense  of  human  life.  His  mission  was  fulfilled. 
It  reunited  God  and  man  by  his  career.  His  offering  was  Love's  deathless 
sacrifice;  for  in  Jesus'  experience  the  human  element  was  gloriously  ex- 
panded and  absorbed  into  the  divine. 

Besides  granting  subjects  to  participles,  antecedents  to  pro- 
nouns, introducing  the  subjunctive  mode  in  conditions  contrary 
to  fact,  and  giving  consistency  to  the  tenses  of  the  verbs, 
Mr.  Wiggin  largely  rearranged  the  matter  in  each  chapter  and 
gave  the  book  its  first  comprehensible  paragraphing.  Out  of 
his  wide  reading  he  introduced  many  illustrative  quotations 
into  the  text  (not  always  to  its  advantage),  and  used  many  more 
as  chapter-headings.  He  prevailed  upon  Mrs.  Eddy  to  omit 
a  very  libellous  chapter  on  "  mesmerists,"  and  here  and  there 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  331 

throughout  the  book  expurgated  some  amusing  absurdities. 
Where  Mrs.  Eddy  represents  Huxley,  Tyndall,  and  Agassiz  as 
Gohath,  and  Woman  as  David  going  forth  to  do  battle  with 
them,  Mr.  Wiggin  permits  Woman  to  go  on  with  her  sling, 
but  suppresses  the  worthy  professors,  leaving  her  to  encounter 
Goliath  in  the  shape  of  Materialism.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  Mr.  Wiggin's  edition  was  not  made  directly  from  the 
1884  edition,  but  from  a  manuscript  revision  of  it  made  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  However,  when  one  recalls  that  the  1884! 
edition  was  the  result  of  at  least  a  fourth  rewriting,  it  seems 
improbable  that  Mrs.  Eddy  could  have  made  much  headway 
as  to  English  in  her  fifth  rewriting,  the  manuscript  from  which 
Mr.  Wiggin  worked. 

This  collaboration  with  Mr.  Wiggin  has  sometimes  been  re- 
ferred to  as  discreditable  to  Mrs.  Eddy — chiefly  from  the  fact, 
doubtless,  that,  even  in  her  business  letters  to  her  publishers, 
she  has  persistently  referred  to  Science  and  Health  as  "  God's 
book."  There  could  have  been  no  wish  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  part 
to  avoid  labour,  for  she  has  worked  at  the  book  almost  con- 
tinuously for  half  a  lifetime.  Excluding  the  chapter  called 
"  Wayside  Hints,"  which  he  wrote,  Mr.  Wiggin  would  have 
been  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  claim  any  part  in  the  real 
authorship  of  Science  and  Health.  The  book  has  been  re- 
written again  and  again  since  Mr.  Wiggin's  work  upon  it 
stopped,  and  the  editions  which  bear  his  revisions  have  been 
considerably  improved  upon,  especially  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  subject-matter.  But  the  successive  editions  never  began 
to  improve  at  all  over  the  first  one — Indeed,  It  may  be  said 
that  they  grew  worse  rather  than  better — until  Mr.  Wiggin 


332        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

took  hold  of  the  book,  and  many  passages  of  the  work  to-day 
remain  practically  in  the  form  into  which  he  put  them. 

For  four  years  Mr.  Wiggin  was  employed  in  the  capacity 
of  literary  aid  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  doing  editorial  work  upon  the 
Journal,  and  assisting  her  in  the  composition  and  proof-read- 
ing of  three  successive  editions  of  Science  and  Health.  Mrs. 
Eddy  paid  him  well,  and,  in  addition  to  Ms  salary,  he  got  a 
deal  of  entertainment  out  of  his  connection  with  Christian 
Science.  He  even  wrote  an  amusing  pamphlet  ^  defending  the 
new  sect  upon  Biblical  grounds.  For  Mr.  Wiggin  combined 
the  qualities  of  a  humourist  and  a  theologian.  He  was  a 
man  of  enormous  bulk  and  stature  and  immense  geniality.  A 
slight  hesitation  in  his  gait,  resulting  from  near-sightedness, 
sometimes  caused  his  friends  to  liken  him  to  Dr.  Johnson.  Ex- 
tremely courtly  and  polished  in  manner,  Mr.  Wiggin  was  not 
only  a  scholar,  but  a  man  of  fine  tastes  and  of  considerable 
critical  ability.  He  was  a  musical  critic  of  no  mean  order  and 
an  indefatigable  concert-goer.  He  united  a  love  of  theology 
and  theological  disputations  with  an  incongruous  passion  for  the 
theatre.  But,  as  it  never  occurred  to  Mr.  Wiggin  that  thei'e 
was  anything  unusual  in  delightedly  pursuing  the  study  of  the 
drama  and  church  history  at  the  same  time,  so  it  seldom  per- 
plexed his  friends  or  his  fellow-clergymen. 

For  years  after  he  had  given  up  active  pastorate  duties,  he 
often  supplied  the  pulpit  of  some  other  minister,  and  occasion- 
ally went  back  to  one  of  his  old  parishes  to  preach,  lecture,  or 
deliver  a  funeral  sermon.  His  friendships  with  many  of  his  old 
parishioners  continued  until  his  death,  and  the  most  cordial 
*  Christian  Science  and  the  Bible,  by  rhare  Pleigh. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  333 

relations  always  existed  between  him  and  the  members  of  the 
Unitarian  Association.  He  usually  attended  the  Monday  Min- 
isters' meeting  at  the  Unitarian  headquarters  on  Beacon  Hill, 
and  would  often  go  out  with  one  or  two  fellow-preachers  and 
sit  down  to  a  lunch  and  a  lengthy  theological  argument.  Per- 
haps the  same  evening  he  would  gather  up  several  young  news- 
paper men  and  go  to  an  opening  night  at  the  theatre,  pouring 
forth  between  the  acts  such  a  stream  of  anecdote,  discriminating 
criticism,  and  reminiscence,  that  the  young  critics  felt  the 
morning's  "  notice  "  of  the  performance  growing  beneath  their 
hands.  After  the  last  curtain  Mr.  Wiggin  frequently  went 
back  to  the  dressing-rooms  to  exchange  stories  and  recollections 
with  the  older  performers  and  to  give  encouragement  and  sug- 
gestions to  the  younger  ones.  Mr.  Wiggin's  love  of  the  theatre 
came  about  very  naturally :  his  uncle  had  been  from  boyhood 
a  friend  of  Charlotte  Cushman's,  whom  the  nephew  himself 
knew  and  concerning  whom  he  once  wrote  a  delightful  paper 
for  The  Coming  Age, 

Mr.  Wiggin,  with  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Professor  William 
J.  Rolfe,  and  a  score  more,  was  one  of  the  organisers  of  the 
Playgoers'  Club  of  Boston,  before  which  he  used  often  to  lecture 
upon  the  old  days  of  the  Boston  Museum  and  the  remarkable 
stock  work  done  there.  Horace  Lewis,  William  Warren,  Mrs. 
John  Drew,  Adelaide  Phillips,  and  Sol  Smith  Russell  were 
among  his  many  warm  professional  friends,  and  esteemed  his 
suggestions  and  criticisms.  He  was  becomingly  fond  of  the 
comforts  of  the  table,  and  delighted  to  gather  a  party  of 
young  writers  and  actors  about  him  at  supper  and  entertain 
them  with  stories  of  the  great  artists  whom  he  had  heard  in 


{334        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

his  youth.  His  conversation  was  rich  in  anecdote  and  humour, 
and  he  belonged  to  the  day  when  hterary  quotations  were  intro- 
duced unblushingly  into  friendly  talk.  Indeed,  Mr.  Wiggin 
had  his  Shakespeare  so  well  upon  his  tongue  that  he  could 
illuminate  almost  any  question  with  a  Shakespearean  quotation. 
He  once  wrote  an  account  of  how  he  heard  Liszt,  then  a  newly 
made  abbe,  play  at  a  sacred  concert  in  Rome,  and  managed — 
quite  unconsciously,  it  would  seem — to  describe  pretty  much  the 
whole  affair  in  language  from  Macbeth.  An  extraordinary 
man,  certainly,  to  be  concerned  in  the  shaping  of  Science  and 
Health.  Mr.  Wiggin  himself  never  got  over  the  humour  of  it. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  he  took  his  task  lightly  enough 
to  slight  it.  He  was  accustomed  to  do  his  hack  work  well, 
and  it  became  with  him  a  genuine  concern,  as  he  often  said, 
"  to  keep  Mrs.  Eddy  from  making  herself  ridiculous."  He  was 
glad  to  talk  theology  to  any  one,  and  he  doubtless  enjoyed 
teaching  a  little  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  He  used  to  tell,  with  enormous 
glee,  how  Mrs.  Eddy  would  sometimes  receive  his  suggestions 
by  slyly  remarking,  "  Mr.  Wiggin,  do  you  know,  I  sometimes 
believe  God  speaks  to  me  through  you."  It  was  when  his 
venerable  patroness  laughed  that  he  liked  her  best,  and  with 
him  she  sometimes  enjoyed  a  joke  in  a  pleasant  and  human 
fashion.  Among  other  services  which  he  rendered  her,  Mr. 
Wiggin  once  drew  up  for  Mrs.  Eddy  the  outline  of  a  sermon 
upon  the  "  city  that  licth  foursquare,"  described  in  Revelation. 
She  delivered  the  sermon  before  her  congregation  January  24, 
1886,  with  great  success,  though  the  Journal,  in  reporting  the 
occasion,  says  that  the  Rev.  Mrs.  Eddy  laboured  under  some 
disadvantage,  as  she  had  left  her  manuscript  at  home.     Mr. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  335 

Wiggin  was  present  in  the  audience,  and  after  the  service  the 
huge  man  made  his  way  up  to  the  rostrum,  where  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  dchghted  women.  When  Mrs. 
Eddy  saw  him,  her  eyes  began  to  twinkle,  and,  putting  her 
hand  to  her  hps,  she  shot  him  a  stage  whisper :  "  How  did 
it  go.?  " 

When  Mr.  Wiggin  persuaded  her  to  omit  the  hbellous  por- 
tion of  the  chapter  on  Mesmerism  from  the  1886  edition  of 
Science  and  Health  after  the  plates  for  the  edition  had  been 
made,  Mrs.  Eddy,  at  Mr.  Wiggin's  suggestion,  cut  this  sermon 
to  the  required  length  and,  by  inserting  it,  was  able  to  send  the 
book  to  press  without  renumbering  the  remaining  pages.  The 
chapter  was  called  "Wayside  Hints  (Supplementary),"  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  put  her  seal  upon  it  by  inserting,  under  the  subject 
of  "  squareness,"  a  tribute  to  her  deceased  husband :  "  We 
need  good  square  men  everywhere.  Such  a  man  was  my  late 
husband.  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy." 

By  the  year  1890  Mrs.  Eddy  had  begun  to  lose  patience 
with  Mr.  Wiggin  and  to  charge  him  with  not  taking  his  work 
seriously  enough.  In  a  letter  to  her  publisher,  Mr.  William 
G.  Nixon,  she  complains  that  Mr.  Wiggin's  proof  corrections 
liave  a  "  most  shocking  flippancy,"  and  the  exasperation  of 
her  letter  seems  to  indicate  that  the  worthy  gentleman  had 
grown   tired  of  assisting  revelation: 

62  N.  State  St.,  Cokcord,  N.  H. 
Aug.  28,   1890. 
My  dear  Student: 

The  proofs  which  I  received  Aug.  27th,  and  returned  to  printer  Aug.  28th, 
are  somewhere.  I  had  not  changed  the  marginal  references  in  the  copy 
because  I  had  before  written  to  Mr.  Wiggin  to  make  fewer  notations  and 


336        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

more  appropriate  ones.  When  he  returned  the  first  proofs  a  belief^  (but 
don't  name  this  to  amj  one)  prevented  my  examining  them  as  I  should 
otherwise  have  done,  and,  to  prevent  delay,  the  proof  was  sent  to  the 
printer. 

The  second  proofs  have  the  most  shocking  flippancy  in  notations.  I 
have  corrected  them,  also  made  fewer  of  them,  which  will  involve  another 
delay  caused  by  Mr.  Wiggin.  He  has  before  changed  his  own  marginal 
references  which  delayed  the  printing.  Also  he  took  back  the  word  "  can- 
not "  throughout  the  entire  proofs  which  he  had  before  insisted  upon 
using  thereby  causing  another  delay.  I  write  this  to  let  you  know  how 
things  stand. 

Yours  truly, 

Mary  B.  G.  Eddy. 

In  a  letter  dated  three  months  later  Mrs.  Eddy  again  com- 
plains that  Mr.  Wiggin  is  slow  about  getting  in  his  proofs, 
and  says :  "  This  is  M.A.M.  [Malicious  Animal  Magnetism] 
and  it  governs  Wiggin  as  it  has  done  once  before  to  prevent 
the  publishing  of  my  work.  ...  I  will  take  the  proof-reading 
out  of  Wiggin's  hands." 

On  the  whole,  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  got  along  amicably 
with  Mr.  Wiggin.  She  liked  him,  greatly  respected  his  scholar- 
ship, and  was  pleased  to  make  use  of  his  versatile  talents. 
He,  on  the  other  hand,  assisted  her  with  good  nature,  advised 
her,  and  defended  her  with  a  sort  of  playful  gallantry  that 
went  with  his  generous  make  of  mind  and  body.  He  was  often 
aghast  at  her  makeshifts  and  amused  by  her  persistence,  while 
he  delighted  in  her  ingenuity  and  admired  her  shrewdness.  He 
could  find  lines  in  his  favourite  Macbeth  applicable  even  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  he  seems  always  heartily  to  have  wished  her 
well.  In  a  letter  to  an  old  college  friend,  dated  December  14, 
1889,  Mr.  Wiggin  made  an  interesting  criticism  of  Christian 
Science  and  gave  probably  the  most  trenchant  and  suggestive 

'  An  nincss. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  337 

sketch  of  Mrs.  Eddy  that  will  ever  be  written.  We  have 
no  other  picture  of  her  done  by  so  capable  a  hand,  for  no  one 
else  among  those  closely  associated  with  her  ever  studied  her 
with  such  an  unprejudiced  and  tempered  mind,  or  judged  her 
from  a  long  and  rich  experience  of  books  p.nd  men,  enlightened 
by  a  humour  as  irrepressible  as  it  was  kindly.  Mr.  Wiggin's 
criticism  follows : 

Christian  Science,  on  its  theological  side,  is  an  ignorant  revival  of  one 
form  of  ancient  gnosticism,  that  Jesus  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
Christ,  and  that  his  earthly  appearance  was  phantasmal,  not  real  and  fleshly. 

On  its  moral  side,  it  involves  what  must  follow  from  the  doctrine  that 
reality  is  a  dream,  and  that  if  a  thing  is  right  in  thought,  why  right  it  is, 
and  that  sin  is  non-existent,  because  God  can  behold  no  evil.  Not  that 
Christian  Science  believers  generally  see  this,  or  practise  evil,  but  the 
virus  is  within. 

Religiously,  Christian  Science  is  a  revolt  from  orthodoxy,  but  unphilo- 
sophically   conducted,   endeavouring  to   ride   two   horses. 

Physically,  it  leads  people  to  trust  all  to  nature,  the  great  healer,  and 
so  does  some  good.  Great  virtue  in  imagination !  .  .  .  Where  there 
is   disease   which   time   will   not   reach,   Christian   Science  is   useless. 

As  for  the  High  Priestess  of  it,  .  .  .  she  is — well  I  could  tell  you, 
but  not  write.  An  awfully  (I  use  the  word  advisedly)  smart  woman, 
acute,  shrewd,  but  not  well  read,  nor  in  any  way  learned.  What  she  has, 
as  documents  clearly  show,  she  got  from  P.  P.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Maine, 
whom  she  eulogised  after  death  as  the  great  leader  and  her  special  teacher. 
.  .  .  She  tried  to  answer  the  charge  of  the  adoption  of  Quimby's  ideas, 
and  called  me  in  to  counsel  her  about  it;  but  her  only  answer  (in  print!) 
was  that  if  she  said  such  things  twenty  years  ago,  she  must  have  been 
under  the  influence  of  animal  macjnetism,  which  is  her  devil.  No  church 
can  long  get  on  without  a  devil,  you  know.  Much  more  I  could  say  if  you 
were   here.     .     .     . 

People    beset    with    this    delusion    are    thoroughly    irrational.     Take    an 

instance.     Dr.    R of    Roxbury    is    not   a   believer.     His   wife   is.     One 

evening  I  met  her  at  a  friendly  house.  Knowing  her  belief,  I  ventured 
only  a  mild  and  wary  dissent,  saying  that  I  saw  too  much  of  it  to  feel 
satisfied,  etc.  In  fact,  the  Doctor  said  the  same  and  told  me  more  in 
private.  Yet,  later,  I  learned  that  this  slight  discussion  made  her  ill, 
nervous,  and  had  a  bad  effect. 

One  of  Mrs.  Eddy's   followers  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  she  saw 


338        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mrs.  Eddy  commit  a  crime  she  should  believe  her  own  sight  at  fault,  not 
Mrs.  Eddy's  conduct.  An  intelligent  man  told  me  in  reference  to  lies 
he  knew  about,  that  the  wrong  was  in  us.  "Was  not  Jesus  accused  of 
wrong-doing,  j^et  guiltless?" 

Only  experience  can  teach  these  fanatics,  i.e.,  the  real  believers,  not  the 
charlatans  who  go  into  it  for  money.  ...  As  for  the  book,  if  you 
Iiave  any  edition  since  December,  1885,  it  had  my  supervision.  Though 
now  she  is  getting  out  an  entirely  new  edition,  with  which  I  had  nothing 
to  do,  and   occasionally   she  has   made   changes   whereof   I   did   not  know. 

The  chapter   B told  you  of  is  rather   fanciful,  though,   to  use   Mrs. 

Eddy's  language  in  her  last  note,  her  "  friends  think  it  a  gem."  It  is  the 
one  called  "  Wayside  Hints,"  and  was  added  after  the  work  was  not  only 
in  type,  but  cast,  because  she  wished  to  take  out  some  twenty  pages 
of  diatribe  on  her  dissenters.  ...  I  do  not  think  it  will  greatly  edify 
you,  the  chapter.  As  for  clearness,  many  Christian  Science  people  thought 
her  early  editions  much  better,  because  they  sounded  more  like  Mrs. 
Eddy.  The  truth  is,  she  does  not  care  to  have  her  paragraphs  clear,  and 
delights  in  so  expressing  herself  that  her  words  may  have  various  readings 
and  meanings.  Really,  that  is  one  of  the  tricks  of  the  trade.  You 
know  sibj'ls  have  always  been  thus  oracular,  to  "  keep  the  word  of  promise 
to  the  ear,  and  break  it  to  the  hope." 

There  is  nothing  really  to  understand  in  "  Science  and  Health "  except 
that  Ood  is  all,  and  yet  there  is  no  God  in  matter!  What  they  fail  to 
explain  is,  the  origin  of  the  idea  of  matter,  or  sin.  They  say  it  comes 
from  mortal  mind,  and  that  mortal  mind  is  not  divinely  created,  in  fact, 
has  no  existence;  in  fact,  that  nothing  comes  of  nothing,  and  that  matter 
and  disease  are  like  dreams,  having  no  existence.  Quimby  had  definite 
ideas,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  has  not  understood  them. 

When  I  first  knew  Christian  Science,  I  wrote  a  defensive  pamphlet 
called  "Christian  Science  and  the  Bible"  (though  I  did  not  believe  the 
doctrine).  ...  I  found  fair  game  in  the  assaults  of  orthodoxy  upon 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  support  in  the  supernatiiralism  of  the  Bible;  but  I  did 
not  pretend  to  give  an  exposition  of  Christian  Science,  and  I  did  not  know 
tlie  old  lady  as  well  as  I  do  now. 

No,  Swedenborg,  and  all  other  such  writers,  are  sealed  books  to  her. 
She  cannot  understand  such  utterances,  and  never  could,  but  dollars  and 
cents   she   understands   tlioroughly. 

Her    influence    is    wonderful.     Mrs.    R 's    husband    is    anxious    not 

to  have  her  undeceived,  though  her  tenth  cancer  is  forming,  lest  she  sink 
under  the  change  of  faith,  and  I  can  quite  see  that  the  loss  of  such  a  faith, 
like  loss  of  faith  in  a  physician,  might  be  injurious.  .  .  .  In  the  summer 
of  1888,  some  thirty  of  her  best  people  left  Mrs.  Eddy,  including  her 
leadiiKj  people,  too,  her  association  and  church  oflScers.    .     .    .     They  still 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  339 

believe  nominally  in  Christian  Science,  yet  several  of  them  .  .  .  are 
studying  medicine  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Boston; 
and  she  gave  consent  for  at  least  one  of  them  to  study  at  this  allopathic 
school.  These  students  I  often  see,  and  they  say  the  professors  are  coming 
over  to  their  way  of  belief,  which  means  simply  that  they  hear  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  laws  of  nature  proclaimed.  As  in  her  book,  and  in  her 
class  (which  I  went  through),  she  says,  "Call  a  surgeon  in  surgical  cases." 

"  What  if  I  find  a  breech  presentation  in  childbirth?"  asked  a  pupil. 

"  You  will  710^,  if  you  are  in  Christian  Science,"  replied  Mrs.  Eddy. 

"But  if  I  do?" 

"  Then  send  for  the  nearest  regular  practitioner ! " 

You  see,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  nobody's  fool. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE     MATERIAL    PROSPERITY     OF     CHURCH     AND     COLLEGE MRS. 

EDDY    GOES    TO    LIVE    IN    COMMONWEALTH    AVENUE DISCON- 
TENT    OF     THE     STUDENTS A     RIVAL     SCHOOL     OF     MENTAL 

HEALING THE    SCHISM    OF   1888 

Mary  B.  G.  Eddy  has  worked  out  before  us  as  on  a  blackboard  every 
point  in  the  temptations  and  demonstrations — or  so-called  miracles — of 
Jesus,  showing  us  how  to  meet  and  overcome  the  one  and  how  to  perform 
the  other.     Christian  Science  Journal,  April,   1889. 

The  first  five  years  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  in  Boston  had  been 
years  of  almost  uninterrupted  progress.  Her  college  had,  by 
1887,  grown  to  be  a  source  of  very  considerable  income. 
Her  classes  now  numbered  from  thirty  to  fifty  students  each, 
and  a  class  was  instructed  and  graduated  within  three  weeks' 
time.  Although  some  students  were  received  at  a  discount 
and  paid  only  two  hundred  dollars  for  their  instruction,  the 
usual  tuition  fee  was  still  three  hundred  dollars — a  husband 
and  wife  being  regarded  as  one  student  and  paying  but  one  fee. 
The  course,  which  was  formerly  the  only  one  taught  at  Mrs. 
Eddy's  college,  was  now  called  the  "  primary  course,"  and 
she  added  what  she  termed  a  "  normal  course  "  (being  a  review 
of  the  primary),  a  course  in  "  metaphysical  obstetrics,"  and 
a  course  in  "theology,"  in  all  of  which  she  was  the  sole 
instructor.     If  the  student   took   all  the  courses   offered,  his 

340 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  Shi 

tuition  fees  amounted  to  eight  hundred  dollars/  By  1887 
there  was  such  a  demand  for  Mrs.  Eddy's  instruction  that 
she  could  form  as  many  classes  a  year  as  she  felt  able  to 
teach,  and  her  classes  netted  her  from  five  to  ten  thousand 
dollars  each.  In  1883  Mrs.  Eddy  had  founded  her  monthly 
periodical,  the  Christian  Science  Journal,^  of  incalculable  serv- 
ice in  spreading  her  doctrines.  In  1886  she  had,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin,  got  out  a  new 
and  much  improved  edition  of  Science  and  Health.  Between 
1880  and  1887  she  had  published  four  pamphlets :  Christian 
Healing,  The  People's  God,  Defence  of  Christian  Science,  and 
a  Historical  Sketch  of  Metaphysical  Healing.  Promising 
church  organisations  were  being  built  up  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
Denver,  and  in  dozens  of  smaller  cities. 

Systematic  efforts  were  now  begun  to  raise  money  for  a 
permanent  church  building  in  Boston.  The  congregation  had 
outgrown  its  old  quarters  in  Chickering  Hall  in  Tremont  Street, 
and  was  having  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  place  for  its  services, 
some  of  the  larger  halls  refusing  to  rent  to  the  Christian 
Scientists.  In  the  summer  of  1886  the  church  had  purchased 
from  Nathan  Matthews  a  piece  of  land  in  Falmouth  Street, 
in  a  tenement  district  of  the  Back  Bay,  which  it  intended  to 
use  for  a  building  site.  But  the  land  was  subject  to  a  mortgage 
of  $8,763.50,  and  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  paying  off  this 
mortgage  that  the  Christian  Scientists  Avere  holding  fairs  and 

^  Primary  Olass,  twolvp  lessons    (afterward  seven  lessons)  $300 

Normal  Class,  six  lessons 200 

riass   in   IMetapliysical    Obstetrics,    six   lessons 100 

Class  in  Theology,  six  lessons 200 

Total    $800 

2  The    magazine    was    first   caller!    The  Journal    of    Christian   Science,  but    the 
title  was  soon  changed  to  The  Christian  Science  Journal. 


a42        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

concerts  during  the  latter  years  of  the  '80's,  and  appealing 
to  every  member  of  the  church  and  to  every  student  at  the 
college  to  set  aside  a  weekly  sum  to  be  paid  into  the  fund. 

In  the  Christmas  holidays  of  1887  Mrs.  Eddy  moved  from 
her  dwelling  in  Columbus  Avenue  to  a  more  pretentious  house 
at  385  Commonwealth  Avenue.  The  Christian  Science  Journal, 
under  the  head  "  Material  Change  of  Base,"  announced  her 
removal  in  the  following  enthusiastic  language: 

At  Xmastide  Rev.  Mary  B.  Glover  Eddy  began  to  occupy  the  new 
house  which  she  has  purchased  on  Commonwealth  Avenue,  No.  385.  The 
price  is  recorded  in  real  estate  transactions  as  $40,000.  It  is  a  large 
house  in  the  middle  of  the  block  and  contains  twenty  rooms.  .  .  .  The 
spot  is  very  beautiful  and  the  house  has  been  finished  and  furnished  under  the 
advice  of  a  professional  decorator.  The  locality  is  excellent.  For  the  in- 
formation of  friends  not  acquainted  with  Boston,  it  may  be  stated  that  Com- 
monwealth Avenue  is  the  most  fashionable  in  the  city.  Through  the  centre  of 
it  runs  a  slim  park  with  a  central  promenade,  leaving  a  driveway  on  each 
side  of  the  main  thoroughfare.  Within  a  few  yards  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
mansion  is  the  massive  residence  of  his  Excellency,  Oliver  Ames,  the  present 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.  To  name  the  dwellers  on  this  avenue  would 
be  to  name  scores  of  Boston's  wealthy  and  influential  men.  On  Marlboro' 
Street,  which  is  the  next  toward  the  river,  are  many  more  families  of 
note;  while  everybody  knows  that  Beacon  Street,  which  is  next  in  line, 
chiims  the  blue  blood  of  Boston  for  its  inheritance,  especially  on  the 
water  side. 

The  fact  that  some  of  the  members  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  own 
Boston  church  began  to  murmur  texts  about  the  foxes  having 
holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  having  nests,  and  that  Mrs. 
Crosse,  the  editor  of  the  Journal,  felt  it  necessary  to  print  an 
apologetic  explanation  of  this  notice,  augured  ill  for  the  year 
that  was  just  beginning.  A  great  discontent  had  been  growing 
in  the  Boston  church,  and  for  more  than  two  years  there  had 
been  two  factions  in  the  organisation :  those  who  were  absolutely 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  343 

loyal  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  those  who  merely  conformed — who 
believed  in  the  principle  she  taught,  but  who,  as  she  often  put 
it,  "  tried  with  one  breath  to  credit  the  Message  and  discredit 
the  Messenger." 

Both  factions  believed  in  the  supremacy  of  mind  over  matter, 
and  in  the  healing  principle  which  Mrs.  Eddy  taught.  But 
the  loyal  were  those  who  believed: 

In  the  Fall  in  Lynn  and  its  subsequent  revelation. 

That  the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health  are  one  book — the 
Sacred   Scriptures. 

That  sin,  disease,  and  death  are  non-existent  and  will  finally 
disappear  under  demonstration. 

That  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  can  cause  sickness,  sin, 
and  death. 

That  Mrs.  Eddy  has  interpreted  the  Motherhood,  or  feminine 
idea  of  God,  as   Jesus  Christ  interpreted  the  masculine  idea. 

That  the  feminine  idea  of  God  is  essentially  higher  than  the 
masculine. 

The  loyal  disciples  did  not  hesitate  to  make  the  claim  that 
Christian  Science  was  the  offspring  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  direct 
communion  with  God,  just  as  Jesus  was  the  offspring  of  Mary's 
communion,  and  that  the  result  of  this  second  immaculate  con- 
ception was  a  book  rather  than  a  man,  because  this  age  was 
"  more  mental "  than  that  in  which  Jesus  Christ  lived  and 
taught.  An  article  entitled  "  Immaculate  Conception,"  in  the 
Journal  of  November,  1888,  elaborates  this  idea  at  great 
length : 

Let  us  come  in  thought  to  another  day,  a  day  when  woman  shall  commune 
with   God,   the   eternal   Principle   and   only   Creator,   and   bring   forth   the 


aU        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

spiritual  idea.  And  what  of  her  child?  Man  is  spiritual,  man  is  mental. 
Woman  was  the  first  in  this  day  to  recognise  this  and  the  other  facts  it 
includes.    As  a  result  of  her  communion  we  have  Christian  Science. 

You  may  ask  why  this  child  did  not  come  in  human  form,  as  did  the 
child  of  old.  Because  that  was  not  necessary.  ...  As  this  age  is 
more  mental  than  former  ages,  so  the  appearance  of  the  idea  of  Truth 
is  more  mental. 

From  the  first  year  of  its  establishment,  the  Christian  Science 
Journal  insisted,  as  indeed  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  writings  insist, 
upon  making  for  her  a  place  among  the  characters  of  sacred 
history.     In  November,  1885,  we  find  the  following  outburst: 

What  a  triumphant  career  is  this  for  a  woman !  Can  it  be  anything 
less  than  the  "  tabernacle  of  God  with  men  " — the  fulfilment  of  the  vision 
of  the  lonely  seer  on  the  Isle  of  Patmos — the  "  wonder  in  heaven,"  deliver- 
ing the  child  which  shall  rule  all  nations?  How  dare  we  say  to  the  con- 
trary, that  she  is  God-sent  to  the  world,  as  much  as  any  character  of 
Sacred   Writ? 

Mrs.  Eddy  herself  wrote  that  the  following  verse  from 
the  Apocalypse  "  has  special  reference  to  the  present  age  " :  ^ 

"  And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven ;  a  woman 
clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon 
her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars,"  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  the 
child  wliich  this  woman  bore  was  Christian  Science.  In  the 
Mother  Church  at  Boston  there  is  a  resplendent  window  repre- 
senting this   star-crowned  woman. 

These  comparisons  did  not  stop  with  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
the  star-crowned  woman.  Throughout  the  first  ten  years  of 
the  Journal  there  is  a  running  parallel  between  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Jesus  Christ.  This  comparison  was  continually  heard  from 
the  pulpits  of  Christian  Science  churches.  The  Rev.  George 
B.   Day,   "  M.A.,  C.S.B.,"   in    a   sermon   delivered   before   the 

*  Science  and  Health    (190G),  p.   5G0. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  345 

Chicago  church  and  afterward  approvingly  printed  in  the 
Journal,  declared  that  "  Christian  Science  is  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  Woman."     He  went  on  to  say: 

We  are  witnessing  the  transfer  of  the  gospel  from  male  to  female 
trust.  .  .  .  Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  Paul  declared  tliat  man  was 
the  head  of  the  woman ;  but  now,  in  "  Science  and  Health,"  it  is  asserted 
that  "  woman  is  the  highest  form  of  man." 

Mr.  Day  called  his  sermon  "  Sheep,  Shepherd,  and  Shep- 
herdess," and  he  considered,  in  turn,  the  disciples,  Christ,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy. 

The  Christian  Scientist  held  that  Jesus,  the  man,  was  merely 
a  man ;  that  "  the  Christ  "  which  dwelt  within  him  was  Divine 
Mind,  dwelling  more  or  less  in  all  of  us,  but  manifested  in  a 
superlative  degree  in  Jesus  and  in  Mrs.  Eddy.  In  an  unsigned 
editorial  in  the  Journal  of  April,  1889,  called  "  Christian  Science 
and  its  Revelator,"  we  are  told  that  Jesus  demonstrated  over 
sickness,  sin,  and  death,  but  that  his  disciples  did  not  compre- 
hend the  principle  of  his  miracles,  since  neither  the  Gospels 
nor  the  Epistles  explain  them.  It  was  left  for  Mi*s.  Eddy,  in 
Science  and  Health,  to  supplement  the  New  Testament  and 
to  furnish  this  explanation.  "  The  Christ  is  only  the  name  for 
that  state  of  consciousness  which  is  the  goal,  the  inevitable, 
ultimate  state  of  every  mortal,"  and  Mrs.  Eddy  has  shown 
mankind  how  to  reach  that  state  of  consciousness.  The  writer 
continues :  "  To-day  Truth  has  come  through  the  person  of 
a  New  England  girl.  .  .  .  From  the  cradle  she  gave  indications 
of  a  divine  mission  and  power  which  caused  her  mother  to 
'  ponder  them  in  her  heart.'  "  The  writer  further  says  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  that  she  has  done  good  to  them  that  hated  her,  blessed 


3-16        LIFE  OF  IMARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

them  that  cursed  her,  and  prayed  for  thein  that  despitefully 
used  her;  that  she  has  been  led  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter, 
and  as  a  lamb  before  liis  shearers  is  dumb,  so  she  has  opened 
not  her  mouth. 

It  is  because  Eve  was  the  first  to  admit  her  fault  in  the 
garden  of  Eden,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,"*  that  a  woman  was  permitted 
to  give  birth  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  a  woman  was  permitted 
to  write  Science  and  Health  and  to  reveal  the  spiritual  origin 
of  man.  It  is  because  woman  is  more  spiritual  than  man, 
the  Christian  Science  writers  in  the  Journal  explain,  that  a 
woman  perceived  the  nothingness  of  matter,  though  Jesus  did 
not,  and  that  she  was  able  to  interpret  the  feminine  idea  of 
God,  which  is  essentially  higher  than  the  masculine.  In  answer 
to  an  inquiry  concerning  the  edition  of  the  Bible  upon 
which  Science  and  Health  is  based,  the  editor  of  the  Journal 
replied : 

Would  it  not  be  too  material  a  view  to  speak  of  "  Science  and  Health  " 
being  based  upon  any  edition  of  the  Bible?  .  .  ,  The  Chosen  One, 
always  with  God  in  the  Mount,  speaks  face  to  face.  In  other  words, 
"Science  and  Health"  is  a  first-hand  revelation.  When  this  statement 
by  the  editor,  Mr.  Bailey,  was  criticised,  he  replied  that  he  meant  no 
disparagement  of  the  Bible,  but  that  he  considered  '  the  Bible  and  "  Science 
and   Health "  as   one  book — the  Sacred   Scriptures.' 

When  Mrs.  Eddy's  following  consisted  of  but  a  handful  of 
students,  her  divine  assumption  passed  unnoticed;  but,  as  time 
went  on,  less  credulous  critics  were  heard  from.  She  had 
created  a  wide  and  lively  interest  In  mind-healing,  and  many 
people  began  to  look  into  the  subject.  In  1882  Julius  Dresser, 
her    old    fellow-patient    and    pupil    under   Phineas    Parkhurst 

*  Science  and  Health  (1906),  pages  533,  534. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  347 

Quimby,    returned    from    California,    and  began    to    practise 
Quimby's  method  of  mental  healing  in  Boston. 

With  Mr.  Dresser's  return  the  "  Quimby  controversy "  ^ 
began.  In  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Post^  February  24,  1883, 
Mr.  Dresser  presented  evidence  which  went  a  great  way  toward 
proving  that  Mrs.  Eddy  got  her  principle  of  mind-healing  from 
his  old  teacher.  He  published  the  laudatory  article  upon 
Quimby  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had  written  and  printed  in  the  Port- 
land Courier  twenty-five  years  before.  He  republished  Mrs. 
Eddy's  poem,  "  Lines  upon  the  Death  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby, 
who  Healed  with  the  Truth  that  Christ  Taught,"  as  well  as 
the  letter  which  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  him  after  her  memorable 
fall  in  Lynn. 

To  these  unguarded  utterances  of  that  long-forgotten 
woman,  Mary  M.  Patterson,  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  by  repudiating 
her  own  effusions,  prose  and  verse,  and  saying  that  if  she  ever 
wrote  them  at  all  she  was  "  mesmerised  "  when  she  did  it ;  that 
Quimby  was  an  ignorant  mesmerist,  etc. 

In  1887  Mr.  Dresser  published  his  pamphlet,  The  True 
History  of  Mental  Science,  in  which  he  repeated  his  statements 
in  the  Boston  Post,  and  related  his  omi  experience  with  Mrs. 
Eddy  when  she  was  a  patient  and  he  was  a  student  of  Dr. 
Quimby  in  Portland.  This  pamphlet  brought  out  comment 
that  was  unfavourable  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  stirred  up  her  dis- 
affected students.  Although  Mrs.  Eddy  responded  with  fire 
and   spirit  to  her  critics,^  her  controversy  with  Mr.   Dresser 


'-  For  a  full  account  of  this  controversy  see  Chapters  III,  IV,  and  V. 

«  Mr.  Dresser,  she  savs  in  her  Journal,  "  has  loosed  from  the  leash  his  pet 
poorile  to  alternately  whine  and  bark  at  my  heels,"  and  she  refers  to  a  former 
student  who  has  endorsed  Mr.  Dresser's  hook,  as  "  that  suckling  litterateur, 
Mr.  Marston,  whom  I  taught  and  whose  life  I  saved  three  years  ago,  but  who 
now  squeaks  out  an  echo  of  Mr.  Dresser's  abuse." 


348        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

set  her  less  infatuate  students  to  thinking.  Many  of  them 
decided  to  investigate  the  Quimbj  claim,  and  bought  the  works 
of  the  Rev.  Warren  F.  Evans/  who  had  been  treated  by  Quimby 
a  year  after  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  visit  to  Portland,  who  had 
practised  Quimby's  method  of  healing  both  in  New  Hampshire 
and  in  Massachusetts,  and  who  had  published  two  books  upon 
mental  healing  before  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health 
appeared — The  Mental  Cure  (1869)  and  Mental  Medicine 
(1872). 

Dr.  Evans'  early  works  had  a  mildness  of  tone  which  strongly 
appealed  to  such  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  as  were  interested 
in  the  principle  of  mental  healing  alone,  and  were  somewhat 
repelled  by  the  garnishings  which  she  had  added  to  it.  Evans 
did  not  deny  the  existence  of  disease,  much  less  of  matter; 
he  simply  affirmed  the  power  of  mind.  His  work  The  Mental 
Cure  is  little  more  than  a  study  of  the  reactions  of  mental 
states  upon  the  organs  of  the  body.     After  reading  Dr.  Evans, 

'  The  Rev.  Warren  Felt  Evans.  M.D.,  was  born  in  Rockingham,  Vt.,  December 
23,  1817.  lie  was  educated  at  Chester  Academy,  Middlebury  College,  and  Dart- 
mouth College.  Later  he  was  granted  a  diploma  from  a  chartered  board  of 
physicians  of  the  Eclectic  School,  which  entitled  him  to  the  degree  M.D.  Mr. 
Evans  left  Dartmouth  in  the  middle  of  his  junior  year  and  entered  the  ministry 
of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  For  about  twenty  years  he  remained  in 
the  ministry,  holding  ohaiges  in  various  towns  in  New  Hampshire  and  Massa- 
chusetts, lie  had  been  frail  since  his  vouth,  and  during  the  later  vears  of 
his  ministry  was  ill  much  of  the  time.  It  was  in  those  years  of  broken  health 
that  he  began  to  study  the  works  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  and  came  to  believe 
in  the  possibility  of  curing  physical  disease  through  "the  power  of  a  living 
faith."  About  the  year  1863  Dr.  Evans  went  to  Mr.  Quimby  for  treatment. 
IJe  was  able  to  grasp  Quimby's  theories  almost  immediately,  and  became  so 
much  interested  in  Quimby's  work  that  he  soon  returned  to  Portland  upon  a 
second  visit.  Dr.  Evans  then  told  Mr.  Quimbv  that  he  felt  he  could  himself 
practice  Quimby's  method  of  mind  cure.  Receiving  cordial  encouragement,  he 
return.'d  to  liis  home  at  Claremont,  New  Hampshire,  and  at  once  began  to 
practise.     He   later   conducted   a    kind   of   mind-cure   sanatorium,    known   as    the 

Evans  Home,  '  at  Salisbury,  Mass.  The  later  years  of  his  life  wore  chiefly 
devoted  to  his  literary  work,  and  he  published  a  number  of  books  upon  mental 
healing,  riif.v^  were  The  Mental  Cure  (1869),  Mental  Medicine  (1872),  S^oul 
VyL-""'^  l^'^*"'h  ^'"^  Dirine  Laiv  of  Cure  (1881),  The  Primitive  Mind  Cure 
(l.sSo),  and  FJsotenc  Chrintianily    (1886). 

Dr.  Evans  died  September  4,  1889.  rersonally  he  was  devout  and  modest, 
a  linnker  and  a  reader,  rather  than  a  propagandist.  His  endeavour  was  to 
prove  that  mind  cure  is  one  of  the  old  reciifvlng  forces  of  the  world,  and  he 
made  no  claim  to  discovery  or  to  especial  enlightenment.  His  great  desire  was 
to  arouse  other  people  to  thinking  and  writing  upon  the  subject  of  metaphysical 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  349 

a  number  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  strongest  students  quietly  dropped 
out  of  her  Christian  Scientists'  Association  and  began  to 
investigate  the  subject  of  mental  healing  from  another  side, 
helping  to  form  the  nucleus  of  what  was  later  to  become  the 
"  New  Thought  "  movement. 

Mrs.  Eddy  at  once  saw  the  danger  of  liberal  study  and 
investigation  on  the  part  of  her  students.  As  a  direct  rebuke 
to  those  who  had  become  interested  in  the  writings  of  Dr. 
Evans,  she  issued  instructions  to  the  members  of  the  Christian 
Scientists'  Association  that  they  should  read  no  other  works 
upon  mental  healing  than  those  written  by  herself,  and  she 
printed  in  the  Journal  a  set  of  rules  to  the  effect  that  all 
teachers  of  Christian  Science  should  require  that  their  students 
read  no  literature  upon  the  subject  of  mind  cure  but  her  own. 
To  prevent  liberal  discussion  and  possible  "  conspiracy,"  she 
introduced  a  by-law  that  no  two  of  the  members  of  the  Associa- 
tion should  meet  to  discuss  Christian  Science  or  mental  healing 
without  inviting  all  other  members  of  the  Association  to  be 
present  at  their  discussion.  Her  idea  apparently  was  that  one 
of  her  personal  representatives  should  always  be  on  hand  to 
direct  the  discourse  into  safe  channels.  These  restrictions 
cost  her  the  allegiance  of  thoughtful  students  like  Dr.  J.  W. 
Winkley  and  his  wife. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  facing  the  gravest  problem  which  had 
confronted  her  since  the  founding  of  her  church.  How  was 
she  to  keep  Christian  Science  from  having  a  literature?  How 
was  she  to  prevent  all  these  people  whom  she  had  stirred  and 
had  interested  in  metaphysical  healing  from  writing  books  upon 
it  which  might  prove  as  satisfactory  and  become  as  popular 


350        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

as  her  ovm?  Mrs.  Ursula  Gcstefeld  of  Chicago,  who  had  been 
a  student  in  the  class  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  in  that  city  in  April, 
1884,  and  who  was  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  able  persons 
ever  associated  with  the  Christian  Science  movement,  in  1888 
wrote  a  book  which  she  called  A  Statement  of  Christian  Science, 
adding  upon  the  title-page  that  it  was  "  An  Explanation  of 
Science  and  Health,"  and  giving  Mrs.  Eddy  all  possible  credit 
as  the  originator  of  the  basic  ideas  of  her  book.  Mrs.  Geste- 
feld's  work  was  an  intelligent  and  intelligible  presentation  of 
the  fundamental  ideas  contained  in  Science  and  Health,  without 
Mrs.  Eddy's  disregard  of  logic  and  order,  and  free  from  her 
confusing  and  tawdry  rhetoric.  Any  natural  scientist  would 
have  welcomed  such  a  clear  and  careful  statement  of  his  ideas. 
But  Mrs.  Eddy  branded  Mrs.  Gestefeld  as  a  "  mesmerist  "  of 
the  most  dangerous  variety,  and  had  her  expelled  from  the 
Chicago  church.  The  Journal  declared  that  the  "  meta- 
physics "  of  Mrs.  Gestefeld's  book  "  crawled  on  its  belly  instead 
of  soaring  in  the  upper  air,"  and  bade  her  beware,  as  "  only 
the  pure  in  heart  should  see  God."  Mrs.  Gestefeld  then  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet,  Jesuitism  in  Christian  Science,  in  which  she 
explained  her  position  and  said  that  if  Science  and  Health 
merely  contained  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  impressions,  if  it  were 
a  work  of  the  fancy  or  imagination,  then  she  had  a  right  to 
object  to  its  being  used  as  the  basis  of  another  book.  But  if 
Mrs.  Eddy's  work  announced  the  discovery  of  a  principle  and 
a  universal  truth,  she  could  no  more  keep  other  people  from 
writing  and  thinking  upon  it  than  she  could  keep  people  from 
affirming  that  twice  two  are  four.  But,  with  Mrs,  Eddy, 
obtaining  recognition  for  her  truth  was  always  secondary  to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  351 

keeping  it  hers.  Since  she  first  began  to  teach  her  "  Science," 
the  story  of  her  pubhc  hfe  is  simply  the  story  of  how  she  kept 
her  hold  on  it.  The  very  way  in  which  she  had  come  by  her 
discovery  made  her  always  afraid  of  losing  it,  and  she  was 
forever  detecting  some  student  in  the  act  of  making  off  with  it. 
Even  in  Lynn,  she  slept,  as  it  were,  with  her  hand  on  the  cradle. 

Later,  when  a  Christian  Science  periodical  was  being  printed 
in  German,  Mrs.  Eddy  would  not  permit  Science  and  Health 
to  be  translated  into  that  language,  or  into  any  other.  She 
was  not  a  linguist,  and,  knowing  that  she  would  be  unable  to 
pass  upon  the  text  of  a  translation,  she  feared  to  trust  her 
gospel  to  the  shadings  of  a  foreign  tongue.  How  she  has  done 
it  let  him  declare  who  can,  but  she  has  absolutely  sterilised 
every  source  that  might  have  produced  Christian  Science  litera- 
ture, and  to-day  a  loyal  Christian  Scientist  would  be  as  likely 
to  think  of  dynamiting  the  Mother  Church  as  of  writing  a 
book  upon  the  theory  or  practice  of  Christian  Science. 

Dr.  Evans'  school — if  it  is  not  misleading  to  call  his  patients 
and  sympathisers  by  so  formal  a  name — was  a  rival  which 
caused  Mrs.  Eddy  a  good  deal  of  alarm.  It  drew  from  her 
her  more  thoughtful  students,  and,  though  they  were  seldom 
her  most  loyal  and  tractable  followers,  she  realised  their  value 
in  giving  her  sect  a  certain  standing  in  Boston.  The  Evans 
following  had  hitherto  been  entirely  without  organisation ;  they 
were  simply  a  group  of  people  who  were  interested  in  the 
metaphysical  treatment  of  disease,  each  thinking  in  his  own 
way  and  working  out  his  own  problem.  Now,  however,  they 
began  to  meet  together  more  systematically,  to  organise  in 
groups  here  and  there,  and  to  publish  books  and  periodicals, 


352        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

encouraging  liberal  discussion  and  investigation.  In  their  new 
activity  they  were  doubtless  influenced  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  stimulat- 
ing example.  Whatever  the  more  conservative  school  of  mental 
healers  might  have  to  say  for  themselves,  or  even  for  Mr. 
Quimby,  it  was  Mrs.  Eddy  who  had  brought  mental  healing 
out  of  comparative  obscurity,  who  had  built  up  a  strong  organi- 
sation to  advertise  and  push  it,  and  who  had  sent  out  scores 
of  missionaries  and  healers  to  establish  it.  It  was  as  a  religion, 
not  as  a  way  of  thinking  or  a  manner  of  living,  that  the  new 
idea  could  be  made  to  take  hold,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  had  seen 
this  when  the  mental  scientists  had  not.  Indeed,  had  they 
realised  this  fact,  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  would  have  taken 
any  earlier  action,  since  they  believed  more  in  untrammelled 
individual  development  than  In  organised  effort. 

Although  Mrs.  Eddy  viewed  with  alarm  this  growing  body 
of  independent  writers  and  investigators,  she  had  really  very 
little  to  fear  from  an  unorganised  body  of  theorists  who,  how- 
ever they  might  worst  her  in  argument  or  distance  her  in 
reasoning,  were  certainly  not  her  equals  In  generalship.  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  a  good  fighter,  and  she  knew  it.  In  1897  she  wrote 
from  her  peaceful  retirement  at  Concord :  "  With  tender  tread, 
thought  sometimes  walks  In  memory,  through  the  dim  corridors 
of  years,  on  to  old  battle-grounds,  there  sadly  to  survey  the 
fields  of  the  slain  and  the  enemy's  losses."  This  from  solitude 
and  the  peace  of  age;  but  there  was  no  tender  treading  In  the 
years  when  the  battle  was  on.  As  soon  as  she  saw  signs  of 
activity  and  consolidation  among  the  people  who  had  been  in- 
fluenced by  Dr.  Evans,  Mrs.  Eddy  began  vigorously  to  attack 
them,  realising  that  such  an  organisation  as  theirs  must  in- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  353 

evitably  draw  recruits  from  the  disssatisfied  element  in  her  own 
church.  By  the  beginning  of  1888  there  was  discord  even  in 
that  inner  circle  of  students  who  shared  Mrs.  Eddy's  councils 
and  who  were  in  daily  attendance  upon  her  at  her  new  house 
in  Commonwealth  Avenue.  This  growing  unrest  she  attributed 
solely  to  the  mesmeric  influence  of  the  mental  scientists.  In 
reality  it  arose  from  several  causes. 

Some  of  the  students  were  disappointed  in  Mrs.  Eddy  per- 
sonally;  some,  like  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosse  (for  several  years  editor 
of  the  Journal),  had  lost  faith  in  Mrs.  Eddy  after  long  service; 
some,  like  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Troupe,  were  displeased 
with  the  arbitrary  way  in  which  she  conducted  the  Christian 
Scientists'  Association ;  others  were  dissatisfied  with  her  instruc- 
tion in  the  obstetrical  course  which  she  had  recently  introduced 
into  her  college.  The  first  class  in  obstetrics  was  a  large  one, 
and  each  member  had  paid  one  hundred  dollars  tuition.  Of 
the  six  lectures  which  Mrs.  Eddy  gave  them,  five  were  devoted 
almost  exclusively  to  a  discussion  of  Malicious  Animal  Magnet- 
ism, and  in  the  sixth  she  merely  instructed  them  to  "  deny  " 
premature  birth,  abnormal  presentation,  hemorrhage,  etc.® 

At  the  same  time  Mrs.  Eddy  fanned  the  fire  of  discontent 
by  announcing  that  she  would  no  longer  receive  students  for 
the  "  normal  "   course   who  had  not   passed   through  her  o\vn 

^This  coursp  in  obstolrics,  as  taken  down  by  a  studont  of  that  first  class 
from  Mi-s.  Eddy's  dictation,  covers  loss  than  a  pajre  of  letter-paper,  and  consists 
of  the  "denials"  that  the  practitioner  is  to  use  at  the  bedside  of  his  patient. 

The  practitioner  is  first  to  take  up  in  thought  the  subject  of  premature 
birth,  and  to  deny  the  possibility  of  such  an  occurrence  in  the  case  he  is 
then   treating. 

He  is  to  deny  one  bv  one  some  of  the  dangerous  symptoms  which  may 
attend  childbirth.  Mrs.  'Eddy  takes  these  symptoms  up  at  random  and  with 
no  consideration   for  their   relation   to  each   other. 

It  was  her  exceedingly  informal  and  unsystematic  treatment  of  her  subject 
In  her  obstetrical  course,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  most  of  the  lectures  were 
devoted  to  the  subject  of  Demonology,  that  caused  dissatisfaction  among  Mrs, 
Eddy's  students. 


354        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

primary  class.  As  many  of  her  normal  graduates  were  now 
teaching  primary  classes  in  Christian  Science,  but  not  normal 
classes,  this  ruling  would  have  the  effect  of  debarring  students, 
wlio  wished  to  take  more  than  a  primary  course,  from  any 
institution  but  Mrs.  Eddy's.  Mrs,  ,  Eddy's  primary  classes 
would  be  filled  at  the  expense  of  the  classes  of  her  followers. 
So  generally  was  this  order  criticised,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  felt 
obliged  to  modify  it. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  having  faithfully  taught  her  students  how  to 
detect  malicious  animal  magnetism  in  others,  was  now  openly 
charged  with  teaching  and  practising  it  herself.  In  Science 
and  Health,^  and  in  her  classes,  she  had  taught  her  students 
how  to  make  a  vigorous  defence  against  the  black  art  of  the  mal- 
practitioners,  but  she  had  always  indignantly  denied  the  charge 
of  being  a  mesmerist  herself.  The  very  accusation,  the  Journal 
said,  was  due  to  the  malicious  work  of  Kennedy  and  Arens.^** 

It  seems,  however,  to  have  been  Mrs.  Eddy's  action  in  the 
Corner  case  which  brought  all  this  dissatisfaction  to  a  head. 
In  the  spring  of  1888  Mrs.  Abby  H.  Corner  of  West  Medford, 
Mass.,  a  student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  and  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Scientists'  Association,  attended  her  own  daughter  in  childbirth, 
with  the  result  that  the  mother  and  baby  died.     Mrs.  Corner 

""They  (the  malpractitioners)  know."  she  writes  In  Science  and  Health, 
\ol.  I,  pase  244,  1.S85  edition,  "as  well  as  we,  it  is  morally  impossible  for 
science  to  produce  sickness,  but  science  7nakes  sin  punish  itself.  They  should 
nave  jear  for  their  own  lives  in  their  attempts  to  kill  us.  God  is  Supreme,  and 
the  penalties  of  their  sins  they  cannot  escape.  Turning  the  attention  of  the 
Blck  to  us  for  the  benefit  they  may  receive  from  us.  is  another  milder  species 
Of  malpractice  that  is  not  safe,  for  if  we  feel  their  sufferings,  not  knowing 
the  Individual,  we  shall  defend  ourself,  and  the  result  is  dangerous  to  the 
intruder." 

In  Science  and  Health,  page  174,  1884  edition,  this  warning  is  given  :  "  In 
warfare  with  error  we  attack  with  intent  to  kill,  as  the  wounded  or  cornered 
benst  turns  on  its  assailant." 

""'I  never  touched  in  thought  personalities,  though  well  aware  that  K.  and 
A.  (Kennedy  and  Arens)  of  Boston,  and  some  of  their  co-adjutors  do  mentally 
atrnck  Pf-oplc  in  this  way.  making  them  believe  that  she  who  exposes  their 
crimes   (Mrs.  Eddy)  is  doing  it."— Christian  Science  Journal,  July,  1885. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  355 

was  prosecuted,  but  was  finally  acquitted  on  the  ground  that 
her  daughter's  death  had  occurred  from  a  hemorrhage  which 
might  have  been  fatal  even  had  a  physician  been  present.  The 
case  was  widely  discussed  in  the  newspapers,  and  aroused  a 
great  deal  of  indignation  and  animosity  toward  Christian  Sci- 
ence. It  seemed  the  time  of  all  times  for  Christian  Scientists 
to  stand  together,  and  for  the  students  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  college 
to  meet  the  issue  squarely.  They  did  so — all  except  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  those  whom  she  directly  controlled.  Hundreds  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  students  were  then  practising  who  knew  no  more  about 
obstetrics  than  the  babes  they  helped  into  the  world.  Mrs. 
Eddy's  obstetrical  course,  which  was  a  recent  innovation,  con- 
sisted of  instructions  to  "  deny "  everything  except  the  child 
itself.  Fifteen  years  before,  students  had  gone  out  from  her 
classes  in  Lynn  and  had  taken  confinement  cases,  in  which  they 
were  said  to  be  particularly  successful.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  never 
hinted,  until  she  introduced  her  obstetrical  course,  that  any 
special  preparation  was  needed  in  that  branch  of  metaphysical 
treatment.  Mrs.  Corner  had  acted  not  only  according  to  the 
custom  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students,  but  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
instructions  for  fifteen  years  past.  Nevertheless,  now  that 
there  was  actually  a  question  of  Christian  Science  and  the 
law,  Mrs.  Eddy  completely  withdrew  her  support  from  Mrs. 
Corner,  and  had  a  statement  denouncing  her  printed  in  the 
Boston  Herald.  This  article  intimated  that  Mrs.  Corner 
had  received  no  authority  from  the  Metaphysical  College  to 
attend  confinement  cases. 

To  THE    Editor  of  the    Herald:    The  lamentable   case  reported   from 
West   Medford   of  the   death  of   a  mother  and   her   infant  at  childbirth 


356        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

should  forever  put  a  stop  to  quackery.  There  has  been  but  one  side 
of  this  case  presented  by  the  newspapers.  We  wait  to  hear  from  the 
other  side,  trusting  that  attenuating  circumstances  will  be  brought  to  light. 
Mrs.  Abby  H.  Corner  never  entered  the  obstetrics  class  at  the  Massa- 
chusetts Metaphysical  College.  She  was  not  fitted  at  this  institute  for  an 
accoucheur,  had  attended  but  one  term,  and  four  terms,  including  three 
years  of  successful  practice  by  the  student,  are  required  to  complete  the 
college  course.^* 

The  members  of  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association,  in 
the  main,  felt  that  Christian  Science  practice  itself  was  being 
tried  before  the  courts  in  the  person  of  Mrs.  Corner,  and  lent 
her  their  cordial  support.  Mrs.  Corner  had  incurred  an  ex- 
pense of  two  hundred  dollars  in  defending  her  case,  and  the 
members  of  the  Association  wished  to  pay  this  out  of  the 
Association  funds,  thus  distributing  the  burden  among  the 
flock.  Mrs.  Eddy  objected  to  this,  ruling  that  if  the  members 
wished  to  aid  Mrs.  Corner  financially,  they  could  do  so  by 
personal  contribution.  In  the  end,  however,  Mrs.  Corner's 
lawyer  was  paid  from  the  Association  treasury. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  action,  if  not  just,  was  politic.  By  repudiating 
Mrs.  Corner  she  averted  any  reproach  which,  as  a  result 
of  the  scandal,  might  have  attached  to  Christian  Science  prac- 
tice, and  left  Mrs.  Corner  to  meet  as  best  she  could  the  con- 
sequences of  the  method  she  had  been  taught.  But  her  students 
regarded  it  as  traitorous,  and  complained  bitterly.  They  re- 
membered that  while  their  teacher  advocated  the  practice  of 
Christian  Science  in  all  cases,  and  taught  them  to  believe  they 
were  persecuted  if  interfered  with  by  the  law,  she  took  ample 
care  to  protect  herself,  by  refusing  to  take  patients  for  treat- 

"  Boston  UeraJd,  April  20,  1888.  This  notice  was  signed  "  Committee  on 
riihliciition.  Christian  Scientists'  Association,"  but  it  was  published  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  Association  and  has  many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  turns  of  phrase. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  357 

ment,  or  even  to  be  consulted  on  diseases.     "  We  stand  the 
\\  brunt  and  burden  of  Christian  Science,"  thej  said,  "  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  gets  the  money  and  the  glory." 

On  June  6,  1888,  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association  held 
a  stormy  meeting  in  the  old  Tremont  Temple.  At  this  meeting 
William  B.  Johnson  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Association, 
Charles  A.  Troupe  having  refused  to  hold  the  office  any  longer 
— because,  he  said,  attempts  had  been  made  to  make  him  change 
the  records.  At  this  meeting  Mrs.  Eddy's  conduct  in  regard 
to  Mrs.  Corner  was  severely  criticised.  Indeed,  the  discussion 
became  very  personal,  one  of  the  members  rising  to  state  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  seen  in  the  act  of  pulling  Mr.  Frye  about 
by  the  hair  of  his  head.  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  was  present,  re- 
marked :  "  There  is  Calvin  Frye.  He  has  a  good  head  of  hair ; 
let  him  speak  for  himself."  Mr.  Frye,  however,  sitting  in  his 
usual  imperturbable  silence,  made  no  reply.  Five  weeks  later 
he  sent  out  the  following  explanation  in  a  stylograph  letter, 
dated  July   14: 

A  student  and  a  Free  Mason  gives  out  this  report  of  the  widow  of  a 
Free  Mason  and  his  hitherto  much  honoured  Teacher,  Rev.  Mary  B.  G. 
Eddy,  that  in  a  fit  of  temper  she  pulled  a  handful  of  hair  out  of  my 
head. 

About  two  years  ago,  I  was  having  much  to  contend  with  from  the 
attaclis  of  malicious  mesmerism,  by  which  the  attempt  was  made  to  de- 
moralise me  and  through  me  to  afflict  Mrs.  Eddy.  While  under  one  of 
these  attacks,  my  mind  became  almost  a  total  blank.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  alone 
with  me  at  the  time,  and,  calling  to  me  loudly  without  a  response,  she  saw 
the  necessity  for  prompt  action  and  lifted  my  head  by  the  forelock,  and 
called  aloud  to  rouse  me  from  the  paralysed  state  into  which  I  had 
fallen,  this  had  the  desired  eifect,  and  I  wakened  to  a  sense  of  where 
I  was,  my  mind  wandering,  but  I  saw  the  danger  from  which  she  had 
delivered  me  and  which  can  never  be  produced  again.  This  malpractice, 
alias  demonology,  I  have  found  out,  and  know  that  God  is  my  refuge. 
"  When  ye  shall   see  the   abomination  of  desolation   spoken  of  by   Daniel 


358        LIFE  OF  JMARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

the  prophet,  stand  in  the  holy  place,  (whoso  readeth,  let  him  understand) 
then  let  them  which  be  in  Judea,  flee  to  the  mountain,"  where  I  have  found 
my  refuge. 

Fraternally  yours, 

C.  A.  Frye. 


At  that  meeting  at  Tremont  Temple,  Mrs.  Eddy  saw  trouble 
enough  ahead.  She  caused  the  new  secretary,  Mr.  Johnson,  to 
send  out  a  general  call  to  the  Association  to  meet  her  at  the 
college  June  14 ;  but,  meaning  to  have  matters  well  arranged 
before  that,  she  sent  telegrams  to  a  few  of  her  most  zealous 
partisans,  asking  them  to  meet  at  her  house  on  June  9,  five 
days  before  the  day  set  for  the  general  meeting.  The  telegram 
which  she  sent  to  New  York  read :  "  Come  to  the  college  Satur- 
day, June  9th.  I  will  be  there.  I  have  a  message  from  God 
that  will  do  you  good."  When  Mrs.  Eddy  learned  that  word 
of  this  first  meeting  had  got  out  among  the  members  of  the 
Association,  she  sent  another  telegram  to  New  York,  saying: 
"  The  message  will  be  delivered  in  Chicago.  Go  there."  (The 
annual  convention  of  the  National  Association  was  to  convene 
in  Chicago  June  13,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  went  there  with  Mr.  John- 
son, Mr.  Frye,  and  a  number  of  her  faithful  students  from 
Boston.) 

What  the  rebellious  students  wanted  to  do  was  simply  to 
leave  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association,  but  that  was  not  so 
easy  as  it  might  seem.  There  were  two  by-laws  of  the  Associa- 
tion which  were  very  formidable  obstacles  to  withdrawal.  They 
read: 

Resolved,  That  every  one  who  wishes  to  withdraw  without  reason  shall 
be  considered  to  have  broken  his  oath. 
Resolved,  That  breaking  the  Christian  Scientists'  oath  is  immorality. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  359 

From  time  to  time  members  had  asked  to  have  their  names 
withdrawn  from  the  roll  of  membership,  and  for  that  reason 
had  been  expelled  for  "  immorality."  This  dissenting  faction 
had  no  mind  to  risk  such  dismissal,  and,  in  the  absence  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  and  of  Mr.  Johnson,  the  secretary,  they  resorted  to 
high-handed  measures.  Calling  at  Mr.  Johnson's  house,  they 
persuaded  his  wife  to  give  them  the  Association  books.  These 
they  put  in  the  hands  of  an  attorney,  and  then  told  Mrs.  Eddy 
that  the  books  would  not  be  returned  to  Mr.  Johnson  until  she 
directed  him  to  give  them  a  letter  of  honourable  dismissal  from 
the  Association.  Mrs.  Eddy  attempted  to  patch  matters  up, 
and  had  Mr.  Johnson  send  out  to  all  the  members  a  circular 
letter,  in  which  she  asked  them  to  meet  her  and  state  their 
grievances.     This  letter  reads,  in  part : 

Our  self-sacrificing  Teacher,  Mrs.  Eddy,  says:  "...  After  learning 
a  little,  even,  of  the  good  I  have  achieved  and  which  has  been  demanded 
and  been  associated  with  all  of  my  movements  since  God  commissioned 
me  to  bring  Christian  Science  into  this  world  of  iniquity,  they  will  learn 
how  to  estimate  their  [her  movements]  wisdom  instead  of  traducing 
them.  ...  At  the  first  special  meeting  called  in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Corner 
I  was  absent,  not  because  unready  or  unwilling  to  help  her,  but  that  she 
needed  no  help,  and  I  knew  it.  I  was  not  at  the  second  special  meeting, 
because  it  was  impossible,  if  I  got  ready  for  the  trip  to  Chicago;  also  I 
wanted  this  conspiracy  to  come  to  the  surface,  and  it  has,  and  now  is  the 
only  time  for  us  to  meet  in  Christian  love  and  adjust  this  great  wrong 
done  to  one  [Mrs.  Eddy]  who  has  given  all  the  best  of  her  years  to  heal 
and  bless  the  whole  human  family." 

The  dissenters,  however,  stood  firm;  refused  to  go  to  the 
Association  meetings  or  to  surrender  the  books.  The  matter 
dragged  on  for  about  a  year,  until  they  finally  received  their 
letters  of  dismissal,  signed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  president  of  the 
Association,    and    William    B.    Johnson    as    clerk.     Thirty-six 


360  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

members  withdrew  at  this  time,  at  least  a  score  of  whom  had 
been  among  Mrs.  Eddy's  most  promising  practitioners  and 
efficient  workers.  As  the  entire  membership  of  the  Boston 
church  was  considerably  less  than  two  hundred  even  before  these 
thirty-six  withdrew,  their  going  made  a  perceptible  decrease 
in  the  size  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  congregation. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

MRS.  EDDY  RALLIES  HER  FORCES GROWTH  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

IN    THE   WEST THE   MAKING   OF   A   HEALER THE   APOTHEO- 
SIS  OF   MRS.   EDDY 

Mrs.  Eddy,  publicly,  made  little  of  the  fact  that  she  was 
losing  support  in  Boston.  "  The  late  much  ado  about  noth- 
ing," she  writes  in  the  Journal  of  September,  1888,  "  arose 
solely  from  mental  malicious  practice,  and  the  audible  falsehood 
designed  to  stir  up  strife  between  brethren,  for  the  purpose 
of  placing  Christian  Science  in  the  hands  of  aspirants  for  place 
and  power."  In  practice,  however,  she  heeded  the  warning. 
She  braced  up  the  course  in  "  Metaphysical  Obstetrics  "  in  her 
college  by  engaging  the  services  of  Ebenezer  J.  Foster,^  who 
held  a  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine,  and  who  had  taken  a 
course  in  Christian  Science  the  previous  autumn.  Dr.  Foster 
was  to  act  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  assistant  in  obstetrics."  The  course 
was  made  longer  and  the  tuition  fee  was  doubled.  "  Doctor 
Foster,"  read  Mrs.  Eddy's  announcement  in  the  Journal,  "  will 
teach  the  anatomy  and  surgery  of  obstetrics,  and  I,  its  meta- 
physics. The  combination  of  his  knowledge  of  Christian  Science 
with  his  anatomical  skill,  renders  him  a  desirable  teacher  In 
this  department  of  my  college.  In  twenty  years'  practice  he 
has  not  had  a  single  case  of  mortality  at  childbirth.   .   .   .   Stu- 

^  Who  later  became  her  adopted  son.     See  Chapter  XX. 

361 


Q6'2        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

dents  will  receive  the  combined  instruction  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Dr.  Foster  for  $200  tuition."  In  every  direction  she  strove 
to  strengthen  her  position,  to  regain  her  lost  ground,  and  to 
gather  new  followers.  She  reiterated  her  divine  right  of 
supremacy,  she  asserted  with  greater  emphasis  her  command 
of  the  situation,  and  she  declared  with  no  uncertainty  the 
duties  of  Christian  Scientists  toward  her,  giving  the  Bible  as 
her  authority.  "  Students  will  do  well,"  says  the  Journal 
(October,  1888)  under  the  head,  "Who  Hath  Ears  to  Hear, 
let  Him  Hear,"  "  to  bear  in  mind  the  Master's  warning :  '  except 
ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.'  This  Scripture  means  prac- 
tically to  each  individual  to-day  all  that  it  implies  in  its 
relative  bearing  towards  the  Truth  as  Divine  Science,  and 
towards  its   rightful  Discoverer." 

Christian  Scientists  were  held  even  more  rigidly  than  before 
to  the  rule  forbidding  them  to  read  any  but  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings  on  mental  healing.  This  war  against  heresy  was 
carried  on  too  zealously  at  last,  and  when  the  Journal  (October, 
1890)  admonished  beginning  students  to  lay  aside  the  Bible 
for  Science  and  Health,^  it  was  felt  even  by  Scientists  that 
this  was  going  too  far.  The  Journal  also  instructed  Mrs. 
Eddy's  loyal  students  to  burn  all  forbidden  literature.  "  Burn 
every  scrap  of  '  Christian  Science  literature,'  so-called,"  it 
said,  "  except  Science  and  Health,  and  the  publications  bearing 


*"A  student,"  says  tho  Journal,  " — in  the  tongue  of  tlie  world  called  a 
patient — wlio  says  to  a  Scientist,  '  I  take  so  much  comfort  in  reading  my  Bible,' 
if  guided  wisely,  will  be  answered,  '  Let  your  Bible  alone  for  three  months  or 
more.  Don't  open  it  even,  nor  think  of  it,  but  dig  night  and  day  at  Science 
and  Health.'  " 

In  response  to  public  criticism  concerning  these  utterances,  the  Christian 
Science  publication  committee  met  and  unanimously  voted  that  this  sentiment 
was  "  unauthorised,  unwise,  and  not  the  thought  of  our  committee." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  S63 

the  imprint  of  the  Christian  Science  PubHshing  Society  of 
Boston." 

This  red-hot  exhortation  was  brought  out  by  the  fact  that 
the  dissenters  of  1888  were  now  pubhshing  periodicals,  bring- 
ing out  books,  and  carrying  on  their  work  of  heahng  and  teach- 
ing under  the  name  of  Christian  Science,  exactly  as  if  Mrs. 
Eddy  did  not  exist.  Most  of  them  had  adopted  the  policy  of 
non-resistance.  They  kept  a  neutral  attitude  toward  Mrs. 
Eddy,  refused  to  discuss  her  or  her  church,  and  in  their  work 
and  public  utterances  they  adhered  to  the  rule  of  excluding 
personalities  and  keeping  close  to  principle.  They  no  longer 
recognised  Mrs.  Eddy's  favourite  doctrine  of  Malicious  Animal 
Magnetism,  but  dwelt  much  upon  the  affirmative  principle  of 
Good.  But  they  must  have  missed  the  inspiring  presence  and 
influence  of  their  old  leader,  for  after  a  few  years  their  publica- 
tions lagged  and  most  of  these  "  independents  "  either  dropped 
Christian  Science  definitely  or  joined  the  New  Thought  move- 
ment. 

But,  whether  Mrs.  Eddy  realised  it  or  not,  sedition  among 
the  Boston  students  no  longer  meant  jeopardy  to  her  or  to  her 
cause.  If  there  was  disloyalty  in  Boston,  hundreds  of  converts 
in  New  England,  the  middle  West,  and  the  far  West  waited 
but  the  word  to  rally  to  her  support.  Christian  Science  was 
an  established  faith,  and  was  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  any 
group  of  people.  It  had  been  established  by  those  indefatigable 
missionaries,  the  healers ;  with  Mrs.  Eddy  always  behind  them, 
and  their  devotion  to  her  holding  them  together,  inspiring  them 
with  one  purpose,  and  enabling  them  to  work  for  one  end. 

After  Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  the  most  remarkable  thing  about 


S64!        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Christian  Science  is  its  rapid  growth.  When  the  National 
Christian  Science  Association,  formed  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  house 
in  Boston,  January  29,  1886,  was  little  more  than  a  year  old, 
one  hundred  and  eleven  professional  healers  advertised  in  the 
pages  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal  and  twenty-one  acade- 
mies and  institutes  taught  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrines. 

In  April,  1890,  the  Journal  contained  the  professional  cards 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  healers,  men  and  women  who  were 
practising  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  nearly  all  of  whom 
were  depending  entirely  upon  their  practice  for  a  livelihood. 
Thirty-three  academies  and  institutes  were  then  teaching  Chris- 
tian Science.  These  "  academies  "  were  very  unpretentious — 
simply  a  room  in  which  the  teacher  met  her  classes.  In  some 
institutes  there  were  two  teachers ;  usually  there  was  but  one. 
The  "  graduates  "  of  these  institutions  sometimes  went  on  to 
Boston  to  take  a  normal  course  under  Mrs.  Eddy,  but  oftener 
they  went  immediately  into  practice.  By  1890  there  were 
twenty  incorporated  Christian  Science  churches  which  an- 
nounced their  weekly  services  in  the  Journal  and  which  met  in 
public  halls  and  schoolhouses,  while  ninety  societies  not  yet 
organised  into  churches  were  holding  their  weekly  meetings. 
The  first  Christian  Science  church  building  was  dedicated  at 
Oconto,  Wis.,  in  1887. 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  established  herself  in  Boston  in  1882, 
there  was  but  one  Christian  Science  Church,  a  feeble  society 
of  less  than  fifty  members,  which  had  been  already  shattered 
by  dissensions  and  quarrels.  It  is  certainly  very  evident  that 
such  an  astonishing  growth  in  the  space  of  eight  years  can  be 
accounted  for  only  by  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  religion  gave 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  365 

the  people  something  they  wanted,  and  that  it  was  presented 
to  them  in  a  direct  and  effective  way.  "  Demonstrate,  demon- 
strate," was  Mrs.  Eddy's  watchword.  "  Heal  the  sick,  raise 
the  dead,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  demons."  Thus  read  the 
seal  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  college,  and  such  were  the  instructions 
she  gave  her  students  when  she  sent  them  out  into  the  field. 
She  never  took  cases  herself,  but  she  made  her  students  under- 
stand that  they  were  to  be  proved  by  works,  and  by  works 
alone,  and  that  if  they  were  children  of  the  new  birth  at  all, 
they  must  heal. 

To  appreciate  the  work  of  the  healers,  one  must  understand 
something  about  their  preparation.  Many  of  the  students  who 
left  Mrs.  Eddy's  Metaphysical  College  and  went  out  to  prac- 
tise knew  much  less  about  physiology,  anatomy,  and  hygiene 
than  the  average  grammar-school  boy  knows  to-day.  They 
had  not  been  taught  how  to  tic  an  artery  or  to  set  a 
broken  bone,  how  to  take  a  patient's  temperature  or  how 
to  administer  the  simple  antidotes  for  poisons.  Spinsters 
who  had  never  even  been  present  at  a  confinement  went  bravely 
out  to  attend  women  in  childbirth.  The  healers'  instruction 
had  been  after  this  manner: 

Tumors,  ulcers,  tubercles,  inflammation,  pain,  deformed  joints,  are  all 
dream  shadows,  dark  images  of  mortal  thought  which  will  flee  before 
the  light.' 

Have  no  fears  that  matter  can  ache,  swell,  and  be  inflamed.  .  .  . 
Your  body  would  suffer  no  more  from  tension  or  wounds  than  would  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  which  you  gash,  were  it  not  for  mortal  mind.* 

A  child  can  have  worms  if  you  say  so, — or  any  other  malady,  timorously 
hidden  in  the  beliefs,  relative  to  his  body,  of  those  about  him.° 

The  treatment  of  insanity  is  especially  interesting.     .     .     .     The  argu- 

'  Science  and  Health  (1906),  p.  418. 
*  Science  and  Health  (1906).  p.  393. 
'^Science   and   Health    (1906),    p.   413. 


366        LIFE  OF  I^L^RY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ments  to  be  used  in  curing  insanity  are  the  same  as  in  other  diseases: 
namely,  the  impossibility  that  matter,  brain,  can  control  or  derange  the 
mind,  can  suffer  or  cause  suffering.* 

If  a  crisis  occurs  in  your  treatment,  you  must  treat  the  patient  less  for 
the  disease  and  more  for  the  mental  fermentation.' 

When  the  unthinking  lobster  loses  his  claw,  it  grows  again.  If  the 
Science  of  Life  were  understood,  it  would  be  found  that  the  senses  of 
Mind  are  never  lost,  and  that  matter  has  no  sensation.  Then  the  human 
limb  would  be  replaced  as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw.' 

The  healers  were  recruited  from  every  walk  of  life — school- 
teachers, milliners,  dressmakers,  music-teachers,  elocutionists, 
mothers  of  families,  and  young  women  who  had  been  trained 
to  no  vocation  at  all.  Among  the  male  practitioners — they 
were  greatly  in  the  minority — there  were  even  a  few  converts 
from  the  regular  schools  of  medicine,  but  their  contributions 
to  the  Journal  are  so  disorderly  and  inexact,  and  in  some  cases 
so  illiterate,  as  to  indicate  that  their  success  in  the  practice 
of  medicine  was  very  questionable.  In  the  first  years  of  her 
college,  Mrs.  Eddy's  consulting  physician  in  instrumental 
surgery  was,  the  reader  will  remember,  Charles  J.  Eastman, 
afterward  imprisoned  for  criminal  practice.  There  were,  how- 
ever, among  her  early  practitioners,  honest  and  worthy  men. 
One  of  the  most  successful  of  these  was  Captain  Joseph  S. 
Eastaman,  for  many  years  a  leading  Christian  Science  practi- 
tioner in  Boston,  and  who  is  still  practising  in  Cambridge. 

When  he  went  to  Mrs.  Eddy  to  lay  before  her  the  case  of 
his  sick  wife,  Mr.  Eastaman  had  been  a  sea-captain  for  twenty- 
one  years,  having  begun  his  apprenticeship  to  the  sea  when 
he  was  thirteen,  as  cabin-boy  on  board  an  English  brig.  If 
the  old  seaman  soon  became  docile  like  the  other  men  about 

*  Science  and  Health  (1006),  p.  414. 
^Science  and  Health  (1006),  p.  421. 
8  Science   and   Health    (1906),   p.   489. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  367 

Mrs.  Eddy  he  had,  at  least,  learned  obedience  in  a  hard  and 
manly  school.  The  story  of  his  life  at  sea,  which  he  contributed 
in  several  articles  to  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  is  a  vigor- 
ous and  sturdy  piece  of  narrative-writing,  full  of  wrecks  and 
typhoons  and  adventures  with  cannibal  tribes,  which  make  his 
subsequent  career  seem  all  the  more  remarkable.  Concerning 
his  first  meeting  with  Mrs.  Eddy  in  1884,  and  his  conversion 
to  Christian  Science,  he  writes  at  length.  His  last  voyage, 
from  Peru  home  to  Boston,  was  made  for  the  purpose  of  joining 
his  invalid  wife. 

Upon  my  arrival  [he  says],  I  found  her  much  lower  than  I  had  supposed, 
and  the  consultation  of  physicians  immediately  secured  only  made  it  evident 
that  she  could  not  live  long.  In  anxiety  and  distress,  I  then  added  my 
own  knowledge  of  medicine — of  necessity  considerable  to  have  enabled  me 
for  so  manj'  years  to  care  properly  for  both  passengers  and  crew.  .  .  . 
One  evening,  as  I  was  sitting  hopeless  at  my  wife's  bedside,  a  friend  called 
and  asked,  "  Captain,  why  don't  you  get  a  Christian  Scientist  to  treat 
your  wife? " 

The  captain  visited  a  healer,  and  learned  for  the  first  time 
of  the  existence  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  He  thought,  "  If  the  healer 
can  do  so  much,  his  teacher  must  heal  instantly."  In  his 
narrative  the  captain  says : 

So,  like  a  drowning  man  grasping  at  a  straw,  with  alternating  hopes 
and  fears  besieging  me  on  the  way,  I  went  to  the  college.  In  answer  to 
my  request  for  a  personal  interview,  Mrs.  Eddy  kindly  granted  me  an 
extended  audience,  though  to  my  appeal  for  help  she  made  the  gentle 
announcement  that  she  herself  did  not  now  take  patients.  At  this  my 
heart  failed  utterly,  for  I  felt  that  none  less  than  the  founder  was  equal 
to  the  healing  necessary  in  my  case.  As  I  was  about  to  leave,  she  turned 
to  me  and  said  with  much  earnestness,  "  Captain,  why  don't  you  heal 
your  wife  yourself?"  I  stood  spellbound.  I  did  not  know  what  to  say 
or  think.  Finally  I  stammered  out,  "  How  can  I  heal  my  wife?  Have 
I  not  procured  the  best  medical  aid?  What  more  can  I  do?"  Gently 
she    said,    "  Learn    how    to   heal."     Without   hesitation    I    returned    to    the 


368        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

parlour  for  particulars.  It  seemed  to  me  that  it  must  require  years  of 
studying  to  learn  Christian  Science — and  she  whom  I  was  trying  to  save 
would  not  long  be  here.  But  when  I  heard  that  the  entire  term  required 
but  three  weeks,  I  gathered  courage.  In  twenty  minutes  more  I  had 
arranged  to  enter  a  class. 

The  captain's  wife  was  averse  to  his  new  plan.  She  was 
unwiUing  that  he  should  add  this  tuition  fee  of  several  hundred 
dollars  to  the  already  heavy  expenses  of  her  long  illness.  More- 
over, she  was  afraid  that  this  Christian  Science  was  some  new 
kind  of  Spiritualism.  But  the  captain  never  committed  himself 
half-way.  In  that  first  interview  Mrs.  Eddy  had  won  him 
completely.  He  had  escaped  typhoons  and  coral  reefs  and 
cannibal  kings,  only  to  arrive  at  an  adventure  of  the  mind 
which  was  vastly  stranger.     Into  the  class  he  went.     He  says : 

The  class  included  many  highly  cultured  people,  all  more  or  less  con- 
versant with  the  rudiments  of  Christian  Science;  while  I,  a  sailor,  with 
only  a  seaman's  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  not  the  faintest  inkling  of 
the  field  to  be  opened  up  before  me,  felt  very  much  out  of  place  there. 
To  that  first  and  last  and  most  important  question  "  What  is  God  ?  "  the 
students  replied  variously.  When  the  question  came  to  me,  I  stammered 
out,  "  God  is  all,  with  all  and  in  all.  Everything  that  is  good  and  pure." 
The  teacher  smiled  encouragingly  as  my  answers  followed  one  another, 
and  I  was  encouraged  to  go  on.  Every  day  during  the  term  questions  were 
asked  and  answers  were  made  that  puzzled  me  not  a  little.  But  to  all 
my  own  simple  earnest  queries  the  patient  teacher  replied  clearly  and 
satisfactorily.  The  many  laughs  enjoyed  by  the  class  at  my  expense  did 
not  trouble  me,  therefore,  for  my  teacher  knew  that  I  would  not  profess 
to  understand  when  I  did  not.  The  simpler  my  questions,  the  more  pains 
she  took  to  explain  clearly. 

How  much  was  due  to  my  own  changed  thought  I  cannot  tell,  but  after 
Christian  Science  was  recognised  in  our  home,  even  before  I  entered  the 
college,  my  wife  began  to  recover.  As  soon  as  I  understood  the  rudiments, 
I  began  to  treat  her,  and  so  quickly  did  she  respond  to  the  treatment 
that  she  was  able  to  avail  herself  of  the  kind  invitation  of  the  teacher  to 
accompany  me  to  the  final  session. 

The  captain's  conversion  was  a  thorough  one.     He  gave  up 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  369 

his  little  bit  of  grog — to  which  he  had  never  been  much  ad- 
dicted— and  his  Havana  cigars,  of  which  he  had  been  very  fond. 
He  began  to  practise  a  little  among  his  old  friends — ship- 
owners and  sailors.  After  his  wife  had  fully  recovered  he 
began  to  look  about  for  work,  and  decided  to  accept  an  offer 
which  had  been  made  him  by  the  Panama  Railway  Company. 

I  accordingly  engaged  passage  to  Aspinwall,  but  on  the  last  day  I  was 
reminded  of  a  promise  made  my  teacher.  I  at  once  wrote  her  of  my 
plans,  asking  if  they  were  wise,  and  received  immediate  counsel  not  to  go. 
Packed  and  passage  taken,  here  was  a  dilemma.  Still,  I  was  ready  to  be 
rightly  guided,  and  wrote  again  asking  what  I  should  do.  The  reply 
came,  "  Take  an  ofBce."  This  certainly  was  the  last  thing  I  should  have 
thought  of  doing,  for  I  could  see  no  way  to  clear  my  personal  expenses, 
much  less  meet  the  added  rent  of  a  central  location.  However,  the  time 
had  come,  and  the  birthright  in  Christian  Science  required  obedience,  even 
though  it  looked  like  throwing  away  time  and  means.  I  could  not  disobey, 
so  I  set  about  ofSce-hunting.  At  first  I  wished  to  take  a  place  on  trial, 
but  a  voice  kept  telling  me  that  I  would  do  better  to  take  a  lease  for  at 
least  a  year.  And  it  was  well  I  did,  for  mortal  mind  soon  tried  to  drive 
me  away,  and  at  times  apparently  only  the  obligation  of  the  lease  held 
me   firm. 

Whatever  unfortunate  examples  of  the  professional  healer 
one  may  have  seen,  one  believes  Captain  Eastaman  when  he 
says  that  in  his  practice  of  twenty-two  years  he  has  worked 
harder  than  he  ever  did  at  stowing  cargoes  in  the  West  India 
service.  His  account  of  his  cures  is  as  straightforward  and 
convincing  in  its  style  as  is  his  story  of  his  life  at  sea.  No 
one  who  reads  it  can  doubt  that  the  captain  actually  believes  he 
cured  a  woman  of  five  tumours  on  the  neck,  and  a  working- 
man  of  cataract  of  both  eyes. 

The  businesslike  methods  which  have  always  been  so  con- 
spicuous in  the  operations  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  had 
their  effect  In  its  early  proselyting. 


370        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  healer  had  no  Board  of  Missions  back  of  him;  he  was 
thrown  entirely  upon  his  own  resources.  His  income  and  his 
usefulness  to  Christian  Science  alike  depended  upon  the  number 
of  patients  he  could  attract,  interest,  influence,  and  heal.  While 
this  condition  must  have  had  its  temptation  for  the  healer 
of  not  very  rugged  integrity,  it  was  wonderfully  advantageous 
to  the  cause  as  a  whole.  Never,  since  religions  were  propa- 
gated by  the  sword,  was  a  new  faith  advertised  and  spread  in 
such  a  systematic  and  effective  manner.  When  the  healer  went 
to  a  new  town,  he  had  first  to  create  a  demand  for  Christian 
Science  treatments,  and,  if  he  could  demonstrate  successfully 
enough  to  make  that  demand,  not  only  was  his  career  assured, 
but  he  had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  future  Christian  Science 
church.  The  files  of  the  Journal  abound  in  letters  from  healers 
which  show  exactly  how  this  demand  was  created. 

Take  the  case  of  Mrs.  Ann  M.  Otis,  a  healer  at  Stanton, 
Mich.  She  was  called  to  Marquette  to  treat  a  young  man 
who  was  suffering  from  a  heavy  cold  on  his  lungs.  As  his 
father  and  brother  had  both  died  from  "  quick  "  consumption, 
his  mother  and  sisters  were  in  frantic  alarm  and  his  friends 
had  already  consigned  him  to  go  the  way  of  his  family.  Under 
Mrs.  Otis'  treatment  he  recovered.  The  cure  was  noised  about 
the  town  by  his  grateful  relatives,  and  so  many  patients  poured 
in  upon  the  healer  that  she  had  to  remain  there  for  weeks. 

Wherever  the  new  religion  went,  it  had  the  advantage  of 
novelty.  It  was  much  talked  about,  was  discussed  at  social 
gatherings  and  in  women's  clubs.  Josephine  Tyter,  a  healer 
at  Richmond,  Ind.,  writes  in  the  Journal,  September,  1888: 

"  It  is  one  year  next  month  since  I  came  to  Richmond.     I 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  371 

knew  no  one  here,  and  no  one  knew  me.  Christian  Science 
they  knew  nothing  of.  People  thought  they  did  not  want 
it.  I  knew  they  did,  but  they  could  not  see  in  dark- 
ness. The  physicians  paid  but  little  attention  to  me  at 
first,  but  now  they  are  thoroughly  aroused.  At  the  regular 
meeting  of  the  Tuesday  Evening  Literary  Club,  to  which  all 
the  high  order  of  minds  of  Richmond  are  supposed  to  belong, 
one  of  the  physicians  of  this  city  read  a  paper  on  Christian 
Science."  Miss  Tyter  then  relates  her  own  success,  enumerat- 
ing among  her  cures  cases  of  the  delusions  of  pregnancy, 
nervous  prostration,  lung  and  brain  fever.  She  says,  "  Have 
had  some  fine  cases  of  spinal  curvature,"  and  tells  how  she 
brought  one  man  "  out  of  a  plaster  cast  into  Truth." 

Mrs.  A.  M.  Rigby,  a  school-teacher  at  Bloomington,  111., 
writes  that  her  health,  broken  down  by  many  years  of  service 
in  the  schoolroom,  was  restored  by  Christian  Science,  and  that 
she  then  began  to  practise.  When  she  had  eighty  cases,  she 
resigned  from  her  school,  and  for  two  years  she  has  had  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  new  cases  a  month. 

Emma  A.  Estes,  a  healer  at  Grandledge,  Mich.,  vv^rites  ex- 
ultantly of  her  trip  to  Newark :  "  My  stay  of  three  days 
lengthened  into  one  of  three  weeks,  and  I  was  kept  busy 
every  day.  Had  forty-nine  patients,  and  found  my  work 
greatly  blessed.  .  .  .  Mother  joins  me  in  sending  love,  and 
adds,  '  May  God  bless  dear  Mrs.  Eddy  for  her  kindness  to 
my  own  little  girl.'  " 

Mrs.  Harriet  N.  Cordwell^  Berlin  Falls,  N.  H.,  writes  that 
she  has  but  recently  become  a  healer,  has  healed  one  case  of 
spinal  trouble  in  sixteen  absent  treatments,  a  case  of  scrofula 


372        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

in  thirteen  treatments,  case  of  lame  back  (fifteen  years'  stand- 
ing), one  treatment,  etc. 

L.  W.  P.  writes  from  Piqua,  Ohio,  that  over  three  hundred 
cases  were  treated  within  five  months  by  an  incoming  healer, 
that  four  classes  were  organised  for  the  study  of  Science  and 
Health,  and  a  Christian  Science  Sunday-school  organised 
(July,  1890). 

Ella  B.  Fluno,  a  healer  then  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  writes  that 
she  was  painlessly  delivered  of  a  child,  got  up  the  next  day 
and  did  her  housework,  carried  water  from  the  well  and  walked 
on  the  icy  sidewalk  in  low  slippers.  She  did  not  have  the 
blinds  in  her  bedroom  lowered,  and  the  sun  shone  daily  in  the 
baby's  eyes,  with  no  ill  effects. 

Some  of  these  communications  from  healers  are  extremely 
entertaining,  attesting  to  the  efficacy  of  Christian  Science  in 
increasing  the  patient's  worldly  prosperity,  and  giving  examples 
of  how  "  demonstration  "  may  be  made  useful  in  despatching 
housework.     One  woman  writes : 

My  husband  came  from  the  stable  one  morning  with  word  that  a  valued 
four-year-old  colt  had  got  into  the  oats-bin,  had  been  eating  all  night,  and 
was  as  "  tight  as  a  drum."  I  met  the  error's  claim  with  an  emphatic  mental 
denial.  ...  As  soon  as  possible,  though  not  immediately,  I  went  to 
the  barn-yard,  laid  my  hand  on  the  horse's  head,  and  said  in  an  audible 
voice:  "You  are  God's  horse;  for  all  that  is  He  made  and  pronounced 
perfect.  You  cannot  overeat,  have  colic,  or  be  foundered,  for  there  is 
no  power  in  material  food  to  obstruct  or  interfere  with  the  perfect  health, 
activity,  and  freedom  of  all  that  is  real  and  spiritual."  .  .  .  Previous 
to  my  treatment  he  stood  with  head  down  and  short,  rapid  breathing. 
At  noon  he  was  all  right,  and  I  am  delighted  to  know  how  to  realise  for 
the  good  of  animals. 

In  the  healer's  effort  to  arouse  interest  and  get  business  in 
a  new  field  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  sometimes  over- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  373 

zealous  and  disregarded  those  uninspiring  facts  of  which  mortal 
mind  must  still  take  account.  The  more  conservative  and 
honest  workers  felt  the  bad  effects  of  these  extreme  methods, 
and  in  the  Journal  of  June,  1892,  one  healer  writes: 

All  healers  have  some  instantaneous  cures,  but  if  we  mention  only  these, 
does  it  not  imply  that  we  have  no  lingering  cases?  I  call  to  mind  a  lady 
Scientist  who  wanted  to  make  an  impression  in  a  new  field  where  she 
hoped  to  get  business.  After  talking  of  the  many  wonderful  cures  which 
she  had  effected,  she  added  that  she  herself  was  cured  in  three  treatments 
of  a  lifelong  malady.  Now,  while  that  was  substantially  correct,  the 
shadows  of  her  belief  [symptoms  of  her  illness]  were  not  wholly  effaced 
for  over  two  years,  and  this  was  known  to  others  in  Science.  Would  it 
not  have  been  better  had  the  Scientist  qualified  her  statement  as  to  the 
time  required? 

Do  not  Scientists  make  a  mistake  in  conveying  the  impression,  or,  what 
is  the  same  thing,  letting  an  impression  go  uncorrected,  that  those  in 
Science  are  never  sick,  that  they  never  have  any  ailments  or  troubles  to 
contend  with?  There  is  no  Scientist  who  at  all  times  is  wholly  exempt 
from  aches  and  pains  or  from  trials  of  some  kind.  Neither  pride  of  knowl- 
edge nor  practice  nor  the  good  of  the  cause  require  that  Scientists  disguise 
or  withhold  these   facts. 

The  question  of  the  compensation  which  it  was  proper  for 
the  healer  and  teacher  to  receive  was,  from  time  to  time,  dis- 
cussed in  the  Journal.  At  the  various  institutes  and  academies 
where  Christian  Science  was  taught,  the  charge  for  a  term  of 
lessons  was  from  one  to  two  hundred  dollars.  The  healer's 
usual  charge  was  a  dollar  a  treatment,  or  daily  treatments  at 
five  dollars  a  week. 

One  healer  writes.  May,  1890:  "To  allow  the  patient  to 
decide  the  price  would  certainly  be  unselfish  on  the  part  of  the 
healer.  But  such  laxity  might  allow  selfishness  with  the  pa- 
tient." 

Another  practitioner  protests  that  the  customary  fee  is  too 
little :  "  It  is  a  low  plane  of  thought,"  he  says,  "  that  goes 


374        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

through  the  community  and  itself  erects  a  barrier  against  gen- 
erosity or  even  fair  compensation.  The  Science  is  lowered  in 
the  pubHc  estimation,  the  healer  humiliated,  if  not  weakened, 
and  the  chances  of  success  in  doing  good  greatly  lessened. 
Selfishness  still  remains  to  imprison  the  patient  unless  his 
thought,  in  this,  as  in  other  directions,  be  changed." 

Mrs.  Buswell,  a  healer  at  Beatrice,  Neb.,  was  once  summoned 
before  the  court  under  charge  of  practising  medicine  unlawfully. 
She    objected    that   her    treatments    were   in    the    nature    of    a 
religious  exercise  and  did  not  come  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  medical  laws  of  the  state.     When,  upon  question,  she  ad- 
mitted   that    she    accepted    money    for    these    treatments,    the 
judge  cited  to  her  the  reply  of  Peter  to  Simon  the  sorcerer: 
"  Thy  money  perish  with  thee,  because  thou  hast  thought  that 
the  gift  of  God  may  be  purchased  with  money."     But  the  Chris-  ; 
tian  Scientist's  God  is  not  at  all  the  God  of  Christian  theology,  j 
He  is,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  ceaselessly  reiterates.  Principle.     There  ' 
was  really  no  more  irreverence  in  Mrs.  Buswell's  realising  the 
Allness  of  God  for  money  than  there  would  have  been  in  her 
realising  the  truth  of  a  proposition  of  Euclid. 

Every  patient  healed  was  practically  a  new  Christian  Scien- 
tist made.  If  he  were  to  keep  well  he  must  do  so  by  studying 
Science  and  Health.  The  new  converts  always  became  imme- 
diately estranged  from  their  old  church  associates,  and  very 
often  from  their  oldest  friends.  They  met  together  at  one 
another's  houses  to  discuss  Christian  Science  and  to  hold  serv- 
ices. These  circles  were,  indeed,  very  much  like  that  first  one 
which  used  to  meet  in  Mrs.  Damon's  parlour  in  Lynn.  As  soon 
as  such  groups  of  bcHevers  were  able  to  do  so,  they  formed  a 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  375 

society  and  held  regular  Sunday  services  in  a  schoolhouse  or 
public  hall.  If  this  society  grew  and  prospered,  which  it  was 
almost  sure  to  do,  it  became  an  incorporated  church.  A  Chris- 
tion  Science  reading-room  was  often  established,  where  Mrs. 
Eddy's  works  and  copies  of  the  Journal  might  be  obtained. 
If  a  community  happened  to  be  slow  in  taking  up  the  new 
faith,  the  missionaries  sometimes  attributed  pubhc  disasters  to 
the  prevalence  of  Error  over  Truth.  One  worker  in  an  un- 
toward field  writes  in  the  Journal  of  November,  1890: 

The  result  of  their  closed  eyes  and  ears  has  been  demonstrated  in  a 
startling  railroad  accident  and  sudden  deaths  in  our  midst.  On  the  night 
of  the  fourteenth  a  cloudburst  caused  a  deluge  ox  destruction  of  property  in 
the  lower  streets  of  this  village  and  imperilled  many  lives.  Just  now  is  a 
favourable  time  for  work. 

While  the  growth  of  Christian  Science  must  be  attributed/ 
primarily  to  its  stimulating  Influence  upon  the  sick  and  dls4 
contented,  the  low  vitality  of  the  orthodox  churches  undoubtedly! 
facilitated  its  advance.  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  brought  the' 
promise  of  material  benefits  to  a  practical  people,  and  the 
appeal  of  seeming  newness  to  a  people  whose  mental  recreation 
was  a  feverish  pursuit  of  novelty.  In  the  West,  especially, 
where  every  one  was  absorbed  in  a  new  and  hard-won  material 
prosperity,  the  healer  and  teacher  met  with  an  immediate  re- 
sponse. This  religion  had  a  message  of  cheer  for  the  rugged 
materialist  as  well  as  for  the  morbid  invalid.  It  exalted  health 
and  self-satisfaction  and  material  prosperity  high  among  the 
moral  virtues — indeed,  they  were  the  evidences  of  right  living, 
the  manifestations  of  a  man's  "  at-oneness  "  with  God.  Chris- 
tian Science  had  no  rebuke  for  riches ;  it  bade  man  think  always 
of  life,  of  his  own  worthiness  and  security,  just  as  the  old  re- 


376        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ligions  had  bidden  him  remember  death  and  be  mindful  of  his 
unworthiness  and  insecurity.  It  contributed  to  the  general 
sense  of  self-satisfaction  and  well-being  which  already  charac- 
terised a  new  and  thrifty  society. 

Probably  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  was  not  aware  of  the  headway 
which  her  sect  had  made  until  she  attended  the  third  annual 
convention  of  the  National  Christian  Scientists'  Association, 
held  at  Chicago  in  June,  1888.  Mrs.  Eddy  went  on  from 
Boston,  personally  attended  by  Mr.  Frye  and  Ebenezer  J. 
Foster,  who  was  soon  to  become  her  son  by  adoption.  Crowds 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Western  followers  here  for  the  first  time  beheld 
her,  as  they  put  it,  "  face  to  face,"  and  she  achieved  a  most 
gratifying  personal  triumph. 

This  was  the  first  and  last  annual  convention  Mrs.  Eddy 
ever  attended,  and  a  cowp  de  theatre  could  scarcely  have  been 
better  planned.  On  the  morning  of  June  13,  Mrs.  Eddy  de- 
livered an  address  to  an  audience  of  more  than  three  thousand 
people,  eight  hundred  of  whom  were  Christian  Science  delegates. 
When  she  stepped  upon  the  platform  the  entire  audience  rose 
and  cheered  her. 

Her  address,  which  is  said  to  have  thrilled  every  listener 
and  which  was  termed  "  pentecostal,"  seems,  at  this  distance, 
rather  below  Mrs.  Eddy's  average.  She  closed  with  the  follow- 
ing tribute  to  her  church  mihtant: 

Christian  Science  and  Christian  Scientists  will,  must,  have  a  history; 
and  if  I  could  write  the  history  in  poor  parody  on  Tennyson's  grand  verse, 
it  would  read  thus: 

"  Traitors  to  right  of  them, 
M.D.'s  to  left  of  them, 
Priestcraft  in   front  of  them. 

Volleyed  and  thundered: 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  377 

Into  the  jaws  of  hate, 

Out    through    the    door    of   love, 

On — to  the  blest  above — 

Marched  the  one  hundred." 

Such  sentiments  as  these  wrought  her  audience  to  a  feverish 
pitch  of  excitement.  A  letter  to  the  Boston  Traveller,  after- 
ward reprinted  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  thus  described 
the  outburst  of  feeling  which  followed  Mrs.  Eddy's  address: 

The  scenes  that  followed  when  she  had  ceased  speaking  will  long  be 
remembered  by  those  who  witnessed  them.  The  people  were  in  the  presence 
of  the  woman  whose  book  had  healed  them,  and  they  knew  it.  Up  they 
came  in  crowds  to  her  side,  begging  one  hand-clasp,  one  look,  one  memorial 
from  her  whose  name  was  a  power  and  a  sacred  thing  in  their  homes. 
Those  whom  she  liad  never  seen  before — invalids  raised  up  by  her  book, 
"  Science  and  Health  " — attempted  to  hurriedly  tell  the  wonderful  story. 

A  mother  who  failed  to  get  near  her  held  high  her  babe  to  look  on 
their  helper.  Others  touched  the  dress  of  their  benefactor,  not  so  much 
as  asking  for  more. 

An  aged  woman,  trembling  with  palsy,  lifted  her  shaking  hands  at  Mrs. 
Eddy's  feet,  crying,  "  Help,  help ! "  and  the  cry  was  answered.  Many 
such  people  were  known  to  go  away  healed.  Strong  men  turned  aside  to 
hide  tears,  as  the  people  thronged  to  Mrs.  Eddy  with  blessings  and  thanks. 

Meekly  and  almost  silently,  she  received  all  this  homage  from  the 
multitude,  until  she  was  led  away  from  the  place,  the  throng  blocking  her 
passage   from   the  door   to   the  carriage. 

What  wonder  if  the  thoughts  of  those  present  went  back  to  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  when  the  healing  power  was  manifested  through  the 
personal  Jesus? 

Can  the  cold  critic,  harsh  opposer,  or  disbeliever  in  Christian  Science  call 
up   any   other  like   picture   through   all   these   centuries? 

What  was  the  Pentecostal  hour  but  this  same  dawning  of  God's  allness 
and  oneness,  and  His  supremacy  manifested  in  gifts  of  healing  and  speaking, 
"with  tongues"?  Let  history  declare  of  Mary  Eddy  what  were  the 
blessings  and  power  which  she  brought. 

It  was  while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  thus  making  material  for  legend 
in  Chicago  that  "  conspiracy  "  was  afoot  in  Boston,  and  the 
enthusiastic  writer  just  quoted  was   forced  to  take   this   into 


378  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

account,  and  to  add:  "Is  there  no  similarity  between  the  past 
and  present  records  of  Christ,  Truth,  entering  into  Jerusalem, 
and  the  betrayal?  Is  the  bloodthirsty  tyranny  of  animal 
magnetism  the  Veil  of  the  Temple,  which  is  to  be  rent  from  top 
to  bottom?  " 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE    ADOPTION    OF    A    SON MRS.    EDDy's    HOUSEHOLD    AND    THE 

NEW     FAVOURITE A     CRISIS     IN     CHRISTIAN     SCIENCE MRS. 

EDDY    IS    DRIVEN    FROM    BOSTON    BY    "  M.A.M." 

In  1888  George  Washington  Glover,  Mrs.  Eddy's  long- 
absent  son,  the  child  of  her  first  marriage,  came  to  spend  a 
winter  in  Boston.  He  brought  with  him  from  the  West  his 
wife  and  four  children,  and  took  a  house  in  Chelsea.  Although 
his  relations  with  his  mother  at  that  time  seem  to  have  been 
amicable,  they  were  certainly  not  of  a  very  close  or  confidential 
nature.  While  Mr.  Glover  was  in  Boston  his  mother's  business 
affairs  were  still  conducted  by  Mr.  Frye,  and  the  son  was  a 
far  from  conspicuous  figure  in  her  daily  life.  He  was  not  a 
member  of  her  household  or  of  her  church,  and  took  no  part 
in  her  great  religious  enterprise.  Mr.  Glover  and  his  family 
were  first  publicly  introduced  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  in 
December,  at  a  fair  given  by  the  Christian  Scientists.  On 
this  occasion  the  Glovers  were  cordially  welcomed  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  friends,  and  the  resemblance  of  the  daughter  Mary 
Baker  Glover,  to  her  grandmother  was  the  subject  of  general 
comment  throughout  the  evening.  At  a  late  hour  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  appeared  to  grace  the  fair,  and  when  she  entered  the 
hall  the  orchestra  began  to  play  Mendelssohn's  wedding  march, 
to  symbolise,  so  the  Journal  explains,  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  indis- 
soluble union  with  Truth." 

379 


380        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mr.  Glover's  prolonged  stay  in  Chelsea  seems  not  to  have 
brought  liim  and  his  mother  any  closer  together,  for,  almost 
immediately  after  liis  return  to  the  West,  Mrs.  Eddy  adopted 
a  son  who  was  presumably  more  to  her  liking, 

Ebenezer  Johnson  Foster  was  a  man  of  forty-one  when 
Mrs.  Eddy  adopted  him,  and  she  herself  was  then  in  her  sixty- 
eighth  year.  Dr.  Foster  was  a  homoeopathic  physician  who  had 
been  practising  his  profession  at  Waterbury  Center,  a  little 
mountain  town  in  Vermont.  Like  most  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  dis- 
ciples, he  had  led  a  quiet,  uneventful  life  until  he  came  under 
her  influence.  As  a  boy  of  fifteen  he  had  enlisted  in  the  Union 
Army  and  had  served  for  three  years.  Later  he  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Hahnemann  Medical  College  in  Philadelpliia. 

Dr.  Foster  first  heard  of  Christian  Science  through  William 
Clark,  an  old  army  comrade  who  believed  that  his  health  had 
been  restored  through  his  study  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book.  Dr. 
Foster  decided  to  investigate  this  new  system  of  healing,  and, 
in  the  autumn  of  1887,  when  he  went  to  Boston  to  pay  a  visit 
to  an  old  aunt,  he  called  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  in  Columbus 
Avenue  and  an  interview  was  granted.  The  first  impressions 
on  both  sides  were  very  agreeable.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  more  than 
eager  to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  "  the  M.D.'s,"  as  she  termed 
physicians,  and  she  saw  in  Dr.  Foster  the  tractable  kind  of 
man  she  was  always  looking  for.  She  lavished  her  most 
gracious  manner  upon  liim,  and  he  was  led  away  captive  in 
the  first  interview.  It  seemed  to  Dr.  Foster  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  very  like  his  own  mother ;  that  she  was  full  of  gentleness  and 
sympathy  and  affection.  She  told  him  that  she  wished  him  to 
become  her  student,  and  he  entered  her  class  the  following  day. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  381 

After  completing  his  course  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  Metaphysical 
College,  Dr.  Foster  returned  to  Waterbury  Center  and  resumed 
the  practice  of  homoeopathy,  experimenting  more  or  less  with 
the  Christian  Science  method  of  healing,  and  industriously 
reading  Science  and  Health.  In  the  following  May  he  received 
an  urgent  letter  from  Mrs.  Eddy  requesting  him  to  attend  the 
National  Convention  of  the  Christian  Scientists'  Association, 
which  was  to  meet  at  Chicago  in  June,  Because  of  division 
and  discord  in  the  Boston  church,  Mrs.  Eddy,  foreseeing  serious 
trouble,  was  strengthening  her  position  by  every  possible  means, 
and  was  ascertaining,  in  one  way  and  another,  which  of  her 
students  could  be  depended  upon  in  case  of  an  emergency.  Dr. 
Foster  was  easily  persuaded  to  go  to  Chicago.  After  the 
convention  adjourned  and  Mrs.  Eddy  returned  to  Boston,  he 
went  to  visit  his  brother  in  Wisconsin.  There  he  soon  received 
a  telegram  from  his  teacher,  bidding  him  come  at  once  to 
Boston.  Before  he  could  start,  another  telegram  from  her 
told  him  not  to  come.  Soon  afterward  he  received  a  letter 
urging  him  to  come  at  once. 

When  Dr.  Foster  arrived  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  new  house  in  Com- 
monwealth Avenue,  July  4,  1888,  he  was  at  a  loss  to  know  just 
why  she  had  sent  for  him,  except  that  the  recent  schism  in  the 
Boston  church,  resulting  in  the  withdrawal  of  thirty-six  mem- 
bers, had  left  her  short  of  active  workers. 

Mrs.  Eddy  soon  made  it  known  to  him,  however,  that  he 
was  to  be  a  teacher  in  her  college,  and  she  duly  installed  him 
as  professor  of  obstetrics.^  She  took  great  comfort  in  Dr. 
Foster's  presence  in  the  house  and  began  to   feel  that  from 

1  See  Chapter  XIX. 


382        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

him  she  might  hope  for  the  unquestioning  obedience  and  per- 
petual adoration  she  was  ahvays  seeking.  She  loved  to  amaze 
and  astonish ;  when  her  students  ceased  to  "  wonder,"  she  was 
usually  through  with  them.  Each  of  her  favourites  gave  her, 
as  it  were,  a  new  lease  of  life ;  with  each  one  her  interest  in 
everything  quickened.  The  great  outside  audience  meant  very 
little  as  compared  with  the  pliant  neophyte  beside  her  chair 
or  across  the  table  from  her.  It  was  when  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
weaving  her  spell  about  a  new  favourite  that  she  was  at  her 
best,  and  it  was  then  that  she  most  believed  in  herself.  But 
she  could  never  stop  with  enchanting,  merely.  She  must  alto- 
gether absorb  the  new  candidate ;  he  must  have  nothing  left 
in  him  which  was  not  from  her.  If  she  came  upon  one  insoluble 
atom  hidden  away  anywhere  in  the  marrow  of  his  bones,  she 
experienced  a   revulsion   and  flung  him  contemptuously   aside. 

Dr.  Foster  had  been  in  the  house  but  a  little  while  when 
Mrs.  Eddy  told  him  she  foresaw  that  the  relation  between  them 
must  be  a  very  close  one.  This  announcement  somewhat  dis- 
concerted him,  until  she  explained  that  it  was  her  intention 
to  adopt  him  as  her  son.  In  her  petition  to  the  Court,  Mrs. 
Eddy  stated  that  "  said  Foster  is  now  associated  with  j^our 
petitioner  in  business,  home  life,  and  life  work,  and  she  needs 
such  interested  care  and  relationship."  On  the  5th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1888,  accordingly.  Dr.  Foster's  legal  name  became  Ebenezer 
J.  Foster  Eddy. 

The  new  son  was  a  small  man  with  an  affectionate  disposition, 
gentle,  affable  manners,  and  very  small,  well-kept  hands.  He 
had  certain  qualities  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had  always  found  de- 
sirable in  those  who  were  closely  associated  with  her.     He  never 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  383 

offered  Mrs.  Eddy  advice,  never  interfered  with  her  wishes, 
never  questioned  her  wisdom  or  demurred  to  her  projects — as 
even  Mr.  Frye  was  sometimes  known  to  do.  He  says  to-day 
that  he  cannot  remember  ever  having  crossed  his  adopted  mother 
in  anything.  If  he  had  planned  to  go  up  to  Waterbury  Center 
to  visit  his  father,  for  instance,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  told  him  to 
unpack  his  bag  and  stay  at  home,  he  did  so  without  so  much 
as  a  question,  and.  preserved  a  cheerful  countenance. 

When  Foster  Eddy  settled  himself  in  his  new  home  at  385 
Commonwealth  Avenue,  he  found  that  not  all  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
friends  were  so  kindly  disposed  toward  him  as  was  his  mother. 
At  this  time  Miss  Julia  Bartlett,  Captain  Eastaman,  Josephine 
Woodbury,  William  B.  Johnson,  Mrs.  Augusta  Stetson,  Frank 
Mason,  and  Marcellus  Munroe  constituted  a  kind  of  executive 
staff  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  the  new  son  felt  confident  that  several 
of  these  persons  had  attempted  to  prevent  his  adoption  from 
motives  of  self-interest.  If  Mrs,  Eddy  were  going  to  adopt 
any  one,  why  not  one  of  her  trusted  and  tried  rather  than  a 
comparative  stranger?  From  the  day  of  his  installation  as 
the  son  of  the  house,  Foster  Eddy  felt  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  cabinet 
was  jealous  of  his  influence  over  her,  of  her  affection  for  him, 
of  his  musical  accomplishments  and  his  winning  manners,  and 
of  his  efforts  to  bring  sunshine  into  his  new  home. 

Mr.  Frye  went  his  silent,  inscrutable  way,  keeping  a  wary 
eye  upon  the  new  favourite.  Frye  was  little  about  the  house 
in  those  days.  When  he  was  not  doing  his  marketing  he  was 
usually  to  be  found  in  his  own  room,  waiting  for  orders  and 
working  at  his  accounts.  Although  he  seems  to  have  been 
scrupulously  honest,  he  was  a  poor  bookkeeper.     Mrs.  Eddy 


384        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

often  took  him  to  task  harshly  for  this  fault,  and  it  was  the 
cause  of  many  a  scene  between  them.  She  now  threatened 
to  take  the  accounts  altogether  out  of  his  hands  and  give 
them  to  her  new  son,  but  as  often  as  she  decided  upon  this  step 
vshe  as  often  changed  her  mind,  and  in  the  end  the  books  re- 
mained in  the  keeping  of  Mr.  Frye.  He  probably  knew  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  trusted  him  in  so  far  as  she  could  trust  any  one, 
but  that  it  was  necessary  for  her  to  have  grievances  and  to 
break  into  thunder-storms  about  them.  Every  one  had  to  take 
his  turn  at  standing  up  under  these  cataclysms  of  nerves ; 
if  it  were  not  Mr.  Frye,  then  it  was  some  one  else,  and  the 
new  son  was  soon  having  his  occasional  bad  day  like  the 
rest. 

Mrs.  Lydia  Roaf,  Mr,  Frye's  sister,  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  cook 
at  this  time,  but  she  and  her  brother  had  little  to  say  to  each 
other.  Miss  Martha  Morgan  acted  as  housekeeper.  She  had 
come  from  Maine  to  study  under  Mrs.  Eddy  and  had  stayed 
to  help  with  the  housework.  Foster  Eddy's  duties  were  mani- 
fold, but  were  chiefly  in  the  nature  of  personal  services  to 
Mrs.  Eddy.  He  went  about  town  on  errands  to  her  publishers 
and  printers;  addressed  meetings  which  she  could  not  attend; 
wrote  some  of  her  letters  for  her ;  saw  visitors  when  she  was 
indisposed ;  sometimes  took  a  drive  with  her ;  kept  her  desk 
in  order;  played  and  sang  for  her  when  she  was  in  a  pensive 
mood.  Mrs.  Eddy  liked  her  son  to  appear  with  some  dis- 
tinction when  he  went  out  to  represent  her.  In  winter  he  usually 
wore  a  long  fur-lined  coat,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  later  bought  him 
a  diamond  solitaire  for  his  little  finger.  Since  he  had  to  speak 
occasionally  in  public,  Mrs.  Eddy  sent  him  to  the  Boston  School 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  385 

of  Oratory  to  learn  the  use  of  the  voice.  She  called  him 
"  Bennie  "  and  he  addressed  her  as  "  mother." 

Dr.  Foster  Eddy  was  sometimes  called  upon  to  attend  Mrs. 
Eddy  in  her  illnesses,  and  he,  like  the  other  members  of  the 
household,  spent  his  spare  moments  in  treating  her  against 
that  old  foe,  malicious  animal  magnetism,  which  was  always 
infesting  the  house.  He  also  made  himself  useful  about  the 
house,  and  sometimes  helped  Miss  Morgan  with  the  dishes. 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a  bad  day,  Dr.  Foster's  new  home  was 
a  difficult  place  to  live  in,  but  the  storms  were  usually  for- 
gotten in  the  smiles  and  calm  which  followed.  Mrs.  Eddy 
could  be  the  most  agreeable  of  hostesses  and  of  mothers  when 
she  chose,  and  from  the  days  when  she  told  a  young  man  of 
Swampscott  that  if  she  could  put  on  canvas  her  ideal  of  Jesus 
Christ  the  face  would  look  like  his,  she  never  underestimated 
the  human  appetite  for  flattery.  She  could  unblushingly  refer 
to  the  "  touch  of  fairy  fingers  "  or  the  "  music  of  footfalls," 
and  could  deliver  the  most  threadbare  euphuisms  with  a  smile 
that  warmed  the  heart  of  the  recipient  and  covered  him  with 
foolish  happiness.  After  having  fretted  herself  to  sleep  the 
night  before,  she  would  sometimes  arise  in  a  mood  almost  beatific, 
and  would  greet  the  object  of  yesterday's  invective  with  a 
benediction  and  a  smile.  In  such  a  humour  she  would  promise 
the  pardoned  offender  a  larger  place  in  her  life  and  a  greater 
control  of  her  affairs,  telling  him  that  he,  more  than  any  one 
else,  had  understood  the  true  meaning  of  her  teachings  and 
the  real  significance  of  her  life,  and  that  she  must  perforce 
look  to  him  to  carry  on  her  great  work  after  her.  It  was  the 
same  old  story  that   Mrs.   Eddy  had  breathed  to   Spofford, 


386        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Arens,  and  Buswell,  each  in  his  turn,  but  to  the  eager  listener 
it  was  always  new. 

By  the  spring  of  1889  Mrs.  Eddy  had  come  to  a  crisis  in  her 
affairs.  In  spite  of  the  brave  fight  she  was  making  against 
those  who  had  gone  out  from  the  church,  and  whom  she  chose 
to  consider  her  enemies,  she  began  to  show  the  wear  and  strain 
of  the  eight  preceding  years.  She  had  now  reached  the  age 
of  sixty-eight,  the  trembling  palsy  which  affected  her  head 
and  hands  was  growing  more  pronounced,  and  her  fear  of 
mesmerism  amounted  to  a  mania.  Yet  now,  more  than  ever 
before,  there  was  work  for  her  to  do.  It  was  a  critical  moment 
in  the  history  of  her  church.  The  movement  was  spreading 
rapidly,  and  new  problems,  incident  to  the  growth  of  Christian 
Science,  were  presenting  themselves  for  solution.  In  nearly 
every  state  the  healers  were  coming  into  conflict  with  the 
law  and  public  opinion,  and  her  followers  everywhere  needed 
advice  and  direction.  The  "  conspiracy  "  which  had  come  to 
light  the  year  before  had  shown  her  that  the  Boston  church 
was  not  so  completely  under  her  control  as  she  had  believed, 
and  she  determined  that  something  should  be  done  to  insure 
her  domination  of  it  in  the  future. 

Mrs.  Eddy  had  decided,  too,  to  revise  Science  and  Health, 
and  to  get  out  a  new  edition.  In  Boston  her  work  was  subject 
to  continual  interruption,  and  she  was  often  irritated  beyond 
endurance  by  the  people  about  her.  Mrs.  Woodbury  and  Mrs.  \ 
Stetson,  in  particular,  had  begun  to  wear  upon  her.  Although  \ 
Mrs.  Stetson's  success  in  building  up  the  church  organisation 
in  New  York  made  her  indispensable,  Mrs.  Eddy  distrusted  her 
and  was   annoyed  as  well  as  pleased  at  her  progress.     Soon 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  387 

after  Mrs.  Eddy  adopted  Dr.  Foster,  Mrs.  Stetson  took  a 
young  man  from  Maine,  Carol  Norton,  to  occupy  a  somewhat 
similar  position  in  her  household,  although  she  did  not  legally 
adopt  him.  When  Mrs.  Eddy  heard  of  this,  she  exclaimed 
with  vexation,  "  See  how  Stetson  apes  me !  "  She  also  made 
a  new  by-law  forbidding  "  illegal  adoption."  ^ 

This  was  the  situation  when  Mrs.  Eddy  suddenly  left  Boston, 
driven  from  home,  so  she  declared,  by  malicious  mesmerism. 
The  fear  of  it  had  for  a  long  time  completely  dominated  her, 
and  it  was  now  interfering  seriously  with  her  work  in  the  college 
and  church.  She  spent  her  time  in  talking  about  it ;  in  treating 
and  fighting  against  it,  and  in  discovering  and  thwarting 
imaginary  plots.  She  felt  it  reaching  out  to  her,  not  only 
from  her  enemies,  but  from  her  most  trusted  students  and 
friends.  She  believed  she  could  see  it  in  their  faces.  As  she 
once  bitterly  remarked  to  Mrs.  Hopkins,  "  You  are  so  full  of 
mesmerism  that  your  eyes  stick  out  like  a  boiled  codfish's." 

She  had  never  loved  any  one  so  well  that  she  could  not,  In 
a  moment  of  irritation,  believe  him  guilty,  not  only  of  disloyalty, 
but  of  theft,  knavery,  blackmail,  or  abominable  corruption. 
She  could  never  feel  sure  of  even  the  ordinary  decencies  of 
conduct  in  her  friends.  All  the  suspicion,  envy,  and  incontinent 
distrust  which  so  often  blazed  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  eyes  seemed 
to  have  found  a  concrete  and  corporeal  expression  in  this  thing, 
Mesmerism. 

The  delusion  of  persecution  grew  upon  her,  and  she  believed 

that  she  Avas  watched  and  spied  upon.     Her  mail,  her  clothes, 

^  Illegal  Adoption.  Sect.  3.  No  person  shall  be  a  member  of  this  church  who 
claims  a  spiritually  adopted  child ;  or  a  spiritually  adopted  husband  or  wife. 
There  must  be  legal  adoption  or  legal  marriage,  which  can  be  verified  according 
to  the  laws  of  our  land. — Church  Manual,  1904. 


388        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

her  house,  her  friends,  and  even  inanimate  objects  she  thought 
were  infected  with  mesmerism  and  made  hostile  to  her. 
Throughout  the  winter  and  spring  she  complained  continually 
to  her  adopted  son  that  Boston  was  so  full  of  mesmerism  that 
it  was  choking  her,  and  that  she  must  escape  from  it.  Her 
one  thought  now  was  "  flight  " — to  get  away  from  the  Boston 
Christian  Scientists  and  to  a  place  where  she  could  prosecute 
her  work  and  carry  out  her  plans  without  interference  or  in- 
terruption. She  talked  of  going  to  Cincinnati  or  Pittsburgh, 
but  at  last  she  threw  deliberation  to  the  winds  and  announced 
one  morning  that  she  must  go  immediately — somewhere,  any- 
where. 

Foster  Eddy  knew  of  a  furnished  house  which  was  to  be  let 
in  Barre,  Vt.,  and  thither  he  conducted  Mrs,  Eddy,  with  Mr. 
Frye  and  the  women  of  the  household — Lydia  Roaf  was  no 
longer  one  of  them,  having  fallen  ill  and  gone  home  to  die. 
When  Mrs.  Eddy  arrived  at  Barre,  new  troubles  awaited  her. 
The  town  band  customarily  played  of  an  evening  in  the  square 
before  her  house,  and  although  she  sent  Mr.  Frye  out  to 
request  the  band  boys  to  desist,  they  refused  to  do  so.  Conse- 
quently^ Mrs.  Eddy  packed  up  and  returned  to  Boston.  A 
few  months  later  she  was  up  and  away  again,  this  time  moving 
into  a  furnished  house  at  62  State  Street,  Concord,  N.  H. 
She  found  no  peace  here,  and  sent  Dr.  Foster  out  to  look  for 
some  place  that  should  be  a  certain  distance  from  the  post-office, 
telegraph-office,  express-office,  etc.  She  wanted  to  be  well  out 
of  reach  of  these,  and  yet  be  not  too  far  from  Boston.  Dr. 
Foster  canvassed  the  suburbs  of  that  city  and  found  a  de- 
sirable house  and  garden  for  sale  in  Roslindale.     The  owner 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  389 

asked  a  price  considerably  above  the  market  value,  but  Mrs. 
Eddy  paid  it,  declaring  that  mesmerism  was  again  at  work, 
trying  to  keep  her  out  of  her  own,  and  that  she  would  have 
the  property  at  any  price.  Dr.  Foster  was  sent  back  to 
Commonwealth  Avenue  to  pack  her  furniture  and  move  it  out 
to  Roslindale.  The  new  house  was  scarcely  settled  when  Mrs. 
Eddy,  believing  that  her  neighbours  were  mesmerised,  went 
back  to  Concord.  Here  she  lived  again  at  No.  62  State  Street, 
until  she  moved  into  the  house  which  she  named  Pleasant  View,  /dy 
and  in  which  she  lived  until  January,  1908. 

In  retiring  to  Concord,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  no  idea  of  loosing 
her  hold  upon  Christian  Science,  or  of  resigning  her  leadership. 
It  is  very  doubtful  if,  when  she  went  away  in  the  spring  of 
1889,  she  meant  to  leave  Boston  for  good.  After  that  date 
she  made  alterations  in  her  Commonwealth  Avenue  house,  and 
the  fact  that  she  had  the  walls  of  her  own  room  there  pulled 
out  and  interlined  with  a  substance  which  would  deaden  sound 
and  make  the  room  absolutely  quiet,  seems  to  indicate  that 
she  intended  to  return  there  to  live.  But  in  going  from  Boston, 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  acting,  as  always,  upon  the  urgent  need  of  the 
moment.  For  the  present  it  Avas  imperative  that  she  should 
be  free  from  the  hot-bed  of  mesmerism  in  Boston,  both  for  her 
own  peace  of  mind,  and  in  order  to  do  what  was  before  her ;  and 
although  her  retirement  to  Concord  proved  most  fortunate  in 
its  general  results,  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  going,  was  probably  not 
concerned  at  the  moment  with  anything  but  her  own  security 
and  convenience.  It  was  apparently  not  until  she  had  left 
the  city  and  had  become  more  inaccessible  to  her  students  and 
followers,    that    she    realised    how    greatly    her    administrative 


390  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

life  in  Boston  had  taxed  her  strength.  For  years  she  had  com- 
plained of  the  anguish  of  meeting  people ;  she  believed  that  her 
students,  and  even  strangers,  left  the  burden  of  their  ills  and 
sorrows  with  her  when  they  went  out  from  her  presence,  and 
she  suffered  excruciatingly  from  the  nervous  excitement  pro- 
duced by  even  the  most  casual  social  intercourse.  From  this 
time  on  her  dread  of  crowds  and  her  distress  at  meeting  people 
increased  and  she  became  gradually  more  and  more  inaccessible. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  NEW  POLICY MRS.  EDDY  RESIGNS  FROM  PULPIT  AND  JOURNAL 

AND      CLOSES      HER      COLLEGE DISORGANISATION      OF      THE 

CHURCH     AND     ASSOCIATION RECONSTRUCTION     ON     A     NEW 

BASIS MRS.    EDDY    IN    ABSOLUTE    CONTROL    AND    POSSESSION 

Mrs.  Eddy's  retreat  from  the  centre  of  Christian  Science 
activities  was  the  first  step,  as  will  be  seen,  in  the  new  policy 
toward  which  she  was  slowly  feeling  her  way.  From  her  point 
of  view  it  was  wise  to  let  Christian  Science  in  Boston  lie  fallow 
for  a  time;  to  allow  the  plots  and  counterplots  of  the  factions 
composing  the  remnant  of  her  church  to  die  out ;  and  to  secure 
for  herself  peace,  and  time  to  decide  what  next  should  be  done. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  during  her  visit  to  Chicago  the  year 
before,  her  eyes  were  opened  to  the  strength  of  the  general 
movement  of  Christian  Science,  and  that  it  was  in  the  larger 
field,  and  not  in  the  local  Boston  church,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  now 
saw  her  opportunity. 

Mrs.  Eddy  retired  from  the  editorship  of  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence Journal,  May,  1889. 

In  announcing  Mrs.  Eddy's  retirement,  the  Journal  of  that 
date  says : 

...  As  our  dear  mother  in  God  withdraws  herself  from  our 
midst,  and  goes  up  into  the  Mount  for  higher  communings,  to  show  us 
and   the   generations  to  come  the  way  to  our  true  consciousness   in   God, 

391 


392        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

let  us  honour  Him  and  keep  silence;  let  us  keep  from  her  and  settle 
among  ourselves  or  with  God  for  ourselves,  the  small  concerns  for  which 
we  have  looked  to  her. 

At  about  this  time,  Mrs.  Eddy  also  gave  up  teaching.  It 
was  with  great  reluctance  that  she  closed  her  college,  and  here 
again  she  felt  her  way  to  a  final  decision.  The  first  plan  was 
that  she  merely  give  up  active  teaching,  and  remain  president 
of  the  institution,  while  her  adopted  son  succeeded  her  as  in- 
structor. She  gave  this  arrangement  a  trial,  but  soon  an- 
nounced that,  as  the  demand  was  for  her  own  instruction  ex- 
clusively, she  would  close  the  college  altogether.  In  the  late 
summer  of  1889  Mrs.  Eddy  again  reconsidered,  and  announced 
that  General  Erastus  N.  Bates  of  Cleveland  would  reopen  the 
college  and  conduct  the  classes.  General  Bates,  who  was  a 
healer  and  preacher  in  his  own  city,  gave  up  his  practice  there 
and  came  on  to  Boston  to  take  up  Mrs.  Eddy's  work.  No 
sooner  had  he  begun  than  Mrs.  Eddy  again  changed  her  mind, 
and  in  less  than  a  month  after  General  Bates  arrived  she  closed 
the  college,  despite  his  earnest  protest. 

Mrs.  Eddy  next  disorganised  the  Association.  At  her  re- 
quest it  was  voted  "  to  set  aside  the  official  organisation  and 
the  constitution  and  by-laws  of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College  Association,  and  to  meet  in  the  future  as  a  voluntary 
association  of  Christians  to  promote  growth  in  spirituality." 
The  Journal,  in  its  announcement,  continues :  "  What  was  em- 
braced under  the  name  of  '  business  '  was  thus  dispensed  with. 
Nothing  valuable  of  the  purposes  of  the  organisation  had  been 
lost  and  a  new  realisation  that  all  is  mind  and  of  union  in  love 
had  been  gained."  The  effect  of  this  disorganisation,  the 
Journal  said,  would  be  "  to  lift  them  from  the  material  sensual 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  393 

plane  to  that  of  voluntary  association  or  love,"  and  to  eliminate 
"rivalry,  jealousy,  envy,  and  stir  of  personality." 

While  she  was  moving  about  and  experimenting,  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  also  engaged  in  preparing  the  new  edition  of  Science  and 
Health,  which  appeared  in  1891 ;  and  her  chief  difficulty  in 
getting  the  book  on  the  market  was,  as  always,  mesmerism. 
She  had  fled  from  Boston  to  escape  it,  but  it  was  ever  on  her 
track  and  it  throve  in  Concord  as  well  as  in  Boston  and  Ver- 
mont and  Roslindale.  The  ordinary  delays  which  occur  in  the 
best-regulated  of  pressrooms  and  binderies,  she  attributed  di- 
rectly to  the  results  of  malicious  animal  magnetism,  and  that 
eminently  reliable  and  decorous  establishment,  the  University 
Press,  was  supposed  to  have  been  given  over  to  the  riotous 
disorders  of  demonology.  Mrs.  Eddy  set  half  a  dozen  of  her 
students  to  treating  the  pressmen  and  binders  against  errors 
and  delays,  and  wrote  out  an  argument  for  them  to  use  in 
their  treatments.  The  veteran  printer,  Mr.  John  Wilson  him- 
self, she  assigned,  for  especial  treatment,  to  her  son,  E.  J. 
Foster  Eddy.  The  letter  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  issued  instruc- 
tions that  the  treatments  upon  the  press  were  to  begin,  was 
written  to  Dr.  Foster  Eddy,  and  reads  as  follows: 

Jan.  13,  385  Commonwealth  Avenue. 

My  Dearest  One:  Please  to  go  at  once  to  Miss  Bartlett  and  give  her 
the  directions  inclosed.  See  Capt.  Eastaman  and  give  him  the  same. 
After  writing  out  sufficient  copies,  distribute  them   as   follows: 

To  Capt.  Eastaman,  Miss  Bartlett;  for  Mrs.  Munroe;  Press  and  Bindery, 
for  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.   Knapp,   Mrs.   Knapp. 

You  keep  Mr.  Wilson,  the  printer  of  Cambridge,  under  your  care  alone. 
Also  the  Mr.  Wilson,  or  proprietor,  whoever  he  is,  in  Boston,  who  manages 
the  bindery,  under  your  care  only.  You  know  they  cannot  be  made  sick 
for  printing  and  binding  God's  book,  and  you  must  show  your  faith  by 
v/orks  in  this  instance. 


394        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Attached  to  this  letter  is  a  sheet  of  manuscript  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  handwriting,  which  reads : 

Argument 

Nothing  can  hinder  the  book,  Science  and  Health,  from  being  published 
immediately.  The  press  and  machinery  that  publish  this  book  and  all  who 
work  on  it  in  the  press  and  bindery  are  safe  in  God's  hands,  they  cannot 
be  and  are  not  governed  by  hatred.  They  are  governed,  upheld  and 
prospered  by  Love  and  the  book  is  coming  out  rapidly.  When  the  book 
goes  to  the  bindery  then  stop  the  press  aid  and  turn  all  their  force  there. 

Tell  each  one  that  I  say  by  no  means  take  up  the  mesmerists  or  any 
personality,  but  to  have  faith  in  God  and  this  will  do  it  all — just  as  the 
prayer  asks. 

Your  personal  work  for  the  Wilsons  must  be  done  as  I  have  taught 
you,  to  help  them,  and  not  touch  others. 

If  I  or  Mr.  Frye  write  or  telegraph  to  you  then  you  must  stop  at  once 
the  student's   argument.     You  understand   this,   do  you  not? 

The  last  sentence  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  instructions  seems  to  imply 
that  it  was  possible  to  over-treat  the  pressroom,  and  that  it 
might  be  necessary  to  stop  the  treatments  at  any  time.  Just 
what  the  results  of  over-treatment  might  be,  it  is  difficult  to 
conjecture,  but  from  another  letter  to  Dr.  Foster  it  is  evident 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  thought  the  treatments  had  been  too  vigorous 
and  had  thrown  everything  into  confusion: 

Dearest: 

I  have  just  found  what  did  (but  did  not)  '  produce  a  temporary  tempest 
here.  It  was  the  help  you  procured  on  the  Press!  Never,  never  put 
"  new   wine    into    old    bottles." 

Those  persons  named  are  utterlj'  incapable  of  handling  the  Red  Dragon.' 
They  can  command  serpents  but  not  the  last  species. 

At  once  dismiss  your  help  and  confine  your  treatment  to  the  Proprietor 

Mr.  W and  electricity  take  no  other  personality  into  thought  but  the 

ones  employed  at  the  Press. 

All  is  God,  Good  there  is  no  evil. 


*  Mrs.  Eddy's  contradictory  statement  means  that  the  confusion  was  not 
real  because  all  is  God  and  discord  has  no  part  in  God.  A  "tempest"  was 
produced  in  "belief"  but  not  in  reality.  The  sentence  is  peculiarly  illustrative 
of  her  philosophy.     One  is   (but  is  not)   ill,  exhausted,  melancholy,  etc.,  etc. 

'  Mesmerism. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  395 

It  was  in  the  early  autumn  of  1889  that  Mrs.  Eddy  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  mahcious  animal  magnetism  was  interfering 
with  the  proper  conduct  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal. 
She  sent  one  morning  for  Mr.  William  G.  Nixon,  publisher  of 
the  Journal,  and  directed  him  to  take  the  magazine  and  flee 
with  it  at  once  into  some  other  city ;  if  he  stayed  in  Boston 
a  month  longer,  she  declared,  mesmerism  would  wreck  the 
periodical.  Mr.  Nixon  tried  to  explain  to  her  the  difficulties 
of  picking  up  a  periodical  and  "  fleeing  "  with  it  between  pub- 
lication days,  when  no  preparatory  arrangements  had  been 
made  and  no  new  location  selected.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  was  im- 
movable. In  business  disputes  Mrs.  Eddy  had  always  one 
argument  which  none  of  her  associates  could  hope  to  equal :  she 
would  draw  up  her  shoulders,  look  her  opponent  in  the  eye, 
and  say,  very  slowly,  "  God  has  directed  me  In  this  matter. 
Have  you  anything  further  to  say.''  "  Mr.  Nixon  naturally 
wished  to  remain  in  Boston ;  he  had  brought  his  family  there 
from  Dakota,  and  his  contract  with  his  printer  was  unex- 
pired. But  there  was  nothing  to  be  gained  by  arguing  with 
Mrs.  Eddy;  and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost  if  he  was  to  find 
a  new  location  for  his  business  in  time  to  get  out  the  next 
month's  Journal.  He  went  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  at  length 
found  a  suitable  office  and  a  printer  who  would  undertake  to 
get  the  magazine  out  on  time.  Just  as  he  was  about  to  close 
the  contract,  he  received  a  telegram  from  Mrs.  Eddy  telling 
him  to  bring  the  Journal  back  to  Boston  at  once. 

In  directing  the  Journal's  policy,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  never  afraid 
to  change  her  mind,  and  often  repudiated  to-day  what  she  had 
yesterday    advanced    as    divine    revelation.     On    one    occasion 


396        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

she  wrote  to  Mr.  Nixon  that  God  had  directed  her  to  recom- 
mend a  certain  candidate  for  the  editorship  of  the  Journal: 

385  Commonwealth  Ave. 
BosTOj^,  Sept.  30  1889 
My  dear  Student 

God  our  God  has  just  told  me  who  to  recommend  to  you  for  the 
Editor  of  C.  S.  Jour,  but  you  are  not  to  name  me  in  this  transaction. 
It  is  Rev.  Charles  Macomber  Smith  D.D.  164  Summer  St  Somerville  Mass. 
He  was  healed  by  reading  Science  and  Health  and  left  a  large  salary 
to  preach  Christian  Science  and  then  left  that  position  for  the  hope 
J.  F.  Bailey  had  held  out  to  him  of  preaching  for  my  Church  but  I 
objected  to  taking  him  solely  because  his  church  had  not  been  consulted 
before  giving  him  a  call. 

Get  him  sure  but  be  very  reticent  let  it  not  be  known  until  he  is  engaged 
or  you  will  have  a  fuss  about  it. 

Lovingly, 

M.  B.  G.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Nixon  had  not  had  time  to  act  upon  this  letter  when 
he  received  another  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  explained  that  her 
recommendation  of  Mr.  Smith  had  been  the  result  of  mesmerism, 
and  not  of  divine  inspiration: 

COKCORD,    N.    H. 
To  Mr.  Nixon-  62  State  St. 

My  DEAR  Student 
I  regret  having  named  the  one  I  did  to  you  for  Editor  It  is  a  mistake 
he  is  not  fit  It  was  not  God  evidently  that  suggested  that  thought  but 
the  person  who  suggests  many  things  mentally  but  I  have  before  been 
able  to  discriminate  I  wrote  too  soon  after  it  came  to  my  thought  He 
has  not  been  taught  C.  S.  and  I  hear  refuses  to  be  taught  by  any  one 
but  me.    Love  to  wife 

Ever  Aifectionately 

M.  B.  G.  Eddy. 

In  another  letter  she  reprimands  her  publisher  for  not  affix- 
ing the  author's  name  whenever  he  refers  to  Science  and  Health 
in  the  columns  of  the  Journal,  and  for  not  printing  the  name 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  397 

of  that  book  always  in  small  capitals.  Mr.  Nixon  felt  that  the 
Journal  should  be  the  magazine  of  Christian  Science  rather 
than  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  organ,  and  had  rashly  attempted 
to  persuade  her  that  it  would  be  more  dignified  in  her  to  keep 
her  own  name  a  little  more  in  the  background,  especially  when 
so  many  of  her  enemies  were  asserting  that  Christian  Science 
was  nothing  but  a  glorification  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  personality." 
On  this  point  she  says  to  Mr.  Nixon,  in  a  letter  dated  June  30, 
1890: 

Those  who  are  trying  to  frighten  you  over  using  my  name  at  suitable 
intervals  and  who  are  crying  out  personality  are  the  very  ones  that  persist 
in  tlieir  purpose  to  keep  my  personality  before  the  public  through  abusing 
it  and  to  harness  it  to  all  the  faults  of  other  personalities  and  make  it 
responsible  for  them.  But  neither  of  these  efforts  disposes  of  personality 
nor  handle  it  on  the  rule  our  Master  taught  nor  deal  with  mortal  personality 
scientifically. 

In  the  same  letter  she  reproves  him  for  having  omitted  her 
appellation  of  "  Reverend  "  when  referring  to  her  in  the  Journal. 

Among  Mrs.  Eddy's  letters  to  her  pubhsher,  Mr.  Nixon,  is 
this  rather  amusing  one: 

July  14  1890. 
385   Commonwealth  Ave. 
My  dear  Student 

Many  thanks  for  your  copy  of  Brotherham's  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  But  I  cannot  see  the  merit  in  it  that  Mr.  Bailey  attaches 
to  it  in  his  long  notice  in  the  Journal.  The  language  is  decaying  as  fast 
as  that  of  Irving's  Pickwick  Papers  I  prefer  the  common  version  for 
all  scriptural  quotations  to  that. 

Most  truly  and  affectionately, 

M.   B.  G.   Eddy. 

Having  divested  herself  of  her  responsibilities  as  editor  and 
teacher,   Mrs.    Eddy    further   protected   herself   from   the   im- 


398        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

portunities  of  her  students  bj  the  publication  in  the  Journal 
of  seven  fixed  rules,  which  announced  that  she  was  not  to  be  con- 
sulted regarding  the  personal  or  church  difficulties  of  her 
followers.^  Her  next  step  was  to  disorganise  the  Boston 
church.  Upon  this  action  the  Journal  of  February,  1890, 
comments  as  follows : 

The  dissolution  of  the  visible  organisation  of  the  church  is  the  sequence 
and  complement  of  that  of  the  college  corporation  and  association.  The 
college  disappeared  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  might  have  freer  course 
among  its  students  and  all  who  come  into  the  understanding  of  Divine 
Science,  the  bonds  of  the  church  were  thrown  away  so  that  its  members 
might  assemble  themselves  together  to  "  provoke  one  another  to  good  works  " 
in  the  bond  only  of  love. 

After  Mrs.  Eddy  disorganised  it,  the  church  continued  to 
hold  regular  services  and,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  went 
on  just  as  before — with  the  one  important  exception  that  it  held 
no  more  business  meetings  and  transacted  no  business.  The 
real  reason  for  this  disorganisation  seems  to  have  been  just 
that,  for  the  time,  Mrs.  Eddy  wanted  no  business  transacted. 
Her  explanation  that  organisation  was  a  detriment  to  spiritu- 
ality could  scarcely  have  been  more  than  a  convenient  pretext, 
for  at  the  same  time  that  she  put  this  check  upon  the  Boston 


8  NOTICE. 

SEVEN    FIXED    ROLES. 

1.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  as  to  whose  adver- 
tisement shall  or  shall  not  appear  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal. 

2.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  as  to  the  matter 
that   should  be  published   in   the  Journal  and  Christian  Science  Series. 

3.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  on  marriage,  divorce, 
or  family  affairs  of  any  kind. 

4.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  on  the  choice  of 
pastors  for  churches. 

5.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  on  disaffections.  If 
there  should  be  any  between  the  students  of  Christian  Scientists. 

r>.  I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  on  who  shall  be 
admitted  as  members,  or  dropped  from  the  membership  of  the  Christian  Science 
Churches  or  Associations. 

7.  I  am  not  to  be  consulted  verbally,  or  through  letters,  on  disease  and  the 
treatment  of  the  sick ;  but  I  shall  love  all  mankind — and  work  for  their 
welfare. 

Mary  B.  G.  Eddy. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  399 

church,  her  messages  to  the  workers  in  the  field  continually 
urged  them  to  organise  churches.  It  would  seem  that  what 
was  hurtful  to  spirituality  in  Boston  would  be  hurtful  elsewhere ; 
but  the  fact  was  that  ever  since  the  schism  of  1888  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  been  dissatisfied  with  her  Boston  church,  and  she  had  de- 
cided to  take  it  to  pieces  and  make  it  over.  A  plan  was  form- 
ing in  her  mind,  and  putting  a  stop  to  all  the  business  trans- 
actions of  the  church  gave  her  time  to  feel  her  way  toward  its 
accomplishment. 

The  Boston  church  was  still  homeless  and  held  its  meetings 
in  public  halls.  In  1886  its  members  had  purchased  a  lot  on 
Falmouth  Street — ^where  the  original  Mother  Church  now  stands 
— with  the  intention  of  expecting  upon  it  a  church  building. 
They  paid  two  thousand  dollars  down  upon  the  date  of  purchase 
and  assumed  a  mortgage  for  the  balance  due.  By  December, 
1888,  the  church  had  paid  $5,800  upon  the  property,  and 
had  reduced  the  mortgage  to  $4,963.50.  Mrs.  Eddy  then 
stepped  in  and,  through  her  lawyer,  secured  an  assignment  of 
the  mortgage  for  the  amount  due  upon  it.  Eight  months  later 
she  foreclosed  and  bought  in  the  property  herself  through  her 
lawyer's  brother.* 

In   other  words,  Mrs.   Eddy  sold   to  herself  the  land   upon 

■*  Tlie  exact  steps  of  this  transaction  were  as  follows  : 

In  1886  the  Boston  church,  through  its  treasurer,  William  H.  Bradley,  had 
purchased  from  Nathan  Matthews  the  plot  of  ground  upon  which  the  Christian 
Science  church  now  stands,  paying  down  $2,000  and  assuming  a  mortgage  for 
•SS.Tfi^.no.  Bv  December,  ISSS',  the  church  had  paid  upon  this  land,  in  all, 
?5,800,  reducing  the  mortgage  to  $4,963.50.  At  this  date  Mrs.  Eddy,  through 
her  lawyer,  Baxter  E.  Perry,  later  disliarred.  secured  an  assignment  of  the 
mortgage  from  Mr.  Matthews"  for  exactly  the  sum  due  upon  the  land.  Although 
this  assignment  occurred  Deceml)er  6,  1888,  it  was  not  recorded  until  August  6, 
1880,  this  date  being  also  the  date  of  the  recording  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  foreclosure 
of  the  mortgage.  The  Suffolk  County  Register  of  Deeds  shows  that  Baxter  E. 
Perry  sold  the  Falmouth  Street  lot  at  a  mortgage  foreclosure  sale  held  on 
August  .S,  1889,  to  his  brother  and  law  partner,  George  H.  Perry,  for  the  sum 
of  .$5,000.  George  H.  Perry  then  deeded  th(»  land  to  Ira  O.  Knapp,  for  the  sum 
of  $5,100,  the  additional  $100  apparently  forming  Mr.  Perry's  fee  for  his  part 
in  the  transaction. 


400        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

which  she  now  held  the  mortgage,  securing  for  $5,000  a  piece 
of  real  estate  which  three  years  before  had  sold  for  $10,763.50, 
— and  which  since  then  had  almost  doubled  in  value, — and  the 
members  of  the  Boston  church  had  lost  all  equity  in  the  property 
upon  which  they  had  paid  $5,800. 

Since  Mrs.  Eddy  intended  ultimately  to  give  this  land  back 
to  the  church,  why,  the  reader  may  ask,  did  she  not  come  for- 
ward when  the  payments  ran  behind,  and  satisfy  the  mortgage, 
leaving  the  property  unincumbered  in  the  hands  of  the  organi- 
sation which  had  already  paid  on  it  more  than  half  the  purchase 
price?  The  reason  seems  to  have  been  that  there  were  still 
in  that  body  persons  of  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  feel  sure; 
members  who  might  be  elected  to  office,  might  have  too  active 
a  part  in  the  church  government,  and  might  even  incite  a  new 
rebellion  like  that  of  1888.  Her  plan  now  was  to  give  this 
building-site  to  the  Boston  church  directors  under  such  condi- 
tions as  would  forever  do  away  with  congregational  self-gov- 
ernment, and  would  place  the  church  wholly  under  the  control 
of  such  trustees  as  she  should  appoint. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  aiming  at  (1)  the  entire  personal  ownership 
of  the  site  of  the  Boston  church,  (2)  perpetual  personal  con- 
trol of  the  church  which  should  be  reared  upon  it,  (3)  making 
the  Boston  church  not  merely  a  local  church  and  the  home 
of  the  Boston  congregation,  but  a  church  universal,  the 
"  Mother  Church  "  of  Christian  Science  the  world  over,  with 
Mrs.  Eddy  installed  as  its  visible  head.  And  a  seemingly  in- 
significant real-estate  transaction  was  actually  the  means  of 
accomplishing  this  important  end. 

Up  to  this  time  Mrs.  Eddy's  name  had  been  kept  out  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  401 

various  conveyances  on  the  Falmouth  Street  property,  and  she 
desired  that  it  should  not  directly  appear  in  future  transactions. 
She  now  had  the  land  deeded  to  her  student,  Ira  O.  Knapp. 
Mr.  Knapp  then  conveyed  the  property  to  three  trustees, 
Alfred  Lang,  Marcellus  Munroe,  and  William  G.  Nixon,  who 
were  to  hold  it  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  church  thereon. 
The  trust  deed  by  which  the  conveyance  was  made  was  of  such 
an  unusual  character  that  Mr.  Nixon  insisted  upon  having  the 
title  examined  before  the  trustees  should  place  on  the  lot  a  build- 
ing paid  for  by  Christian  Scientists  residing  In  all  parts  of  the 
United  States.  After  examining  it,  the  Massachusetts  Title 
Insurance  Company  refused  to  insure  the  title,  and,  in  spite 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  argument  that  "  the  title  was  from  God,  and 
that  no  material  title  could  affect  God's  temple,"  the  three 
trustees  returned  all  the  donations  to  the  building  fund  which 
they  had  received,  and  resigned.  The  property  was  now  con- 
veyed by  Mr.  Knapp  to  Mrs.  Eddy  (who  had  In  reality  been 
its  owner  all  the  while)  for  a  consideration  of  one  dollar,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  began  all  over  again. 

On  September  1,  1892,  Mrs.  Eddy  conveyed  this  much- 
bandled-about  plot  of  ground  to  four  new  trustees:  Ira  O. 
Knapp,  William  B.  Johnson,  Joseph  S.  Eastaman,  and  Stephen 
A.  Chase,  who  were  pledged  to  erect  upon  the  site,  within  five 
years,  a  church  building  costing  not  less  than  $50,000.  Among 
the  provisos  of  the  trust  deed  were  the  following : 

That  in  this  church  there  should  be  no  services  "  which 
shall  not  be  in  strict  harmony  with  the  doctrines  and  practice 
of  Christian  Science  as  taught  and  explained  by  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy  In  the  seventy-first  edition  of  her  book,  entitled  Science 


40£        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

and  Health,  which  is  soon  to  be  issued,  and  in  any  subsequent 
edition  thereof." 

That  these  trustees  should  be  called  the  Board  of  Directors 
and  should  constitute  a  perpetual  body  or  corporation,  fill- 
ing any  vacancy  in  their  body  by  election,  and  filling  it 
only  with  such  an  one  as  should  be  "  a  firm  and  consistent 
believer  in  the  doctrines  of  Christian  Science  as  taught  in  a 
book  entitled  Science  and  Health  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy, 
beginning  with,"  etc. 

That  this  board  should  elect  the  pastor,  speaker,  or  reader, 
maintain  public  worship,  and  was  "  fully  empowered  to  make 
all  necessary  rules  and  regulations  "  for  this  purpose. 

That  "  the  omission  or  neglect  on  the  part  of  said  directors 
to  comply  with  any  of  the  conditions  herein  named,  shall  con- 
stitute a  breach  thereof,  and  the  title  shall  revert  to  the  grantor, 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  her  heirs  and  assigns,"  etc. 

That  "  Whenever  said  directors  shall  determine  that  it  is 
inexpedient  to  maintain  preaching,  reading  or  speaking  in 
said  church  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  this  deed,  they 
are  authorised  and  required  to  reconvey  forthwith  said  lot  of 
land  with  the  building  thereon,  to  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  her 
heirs  and  assigns  forever,  by  a  proper  deed  of  conveyance." 

At  last,  then,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the  Boston  church  where  she 
wanted  it ;  an  institution  without  congregational  government, 
controlled  by  four  directors  whom  she  should  appoint  and  who 
should  elect  their  successors  at  her  suggestion  ;  who  were  pledged 
to  see  that  the  church  taught  only  what  was  in  the  seventy-first 
edition  of  Science  and  Health,  and  whatever  Mrs.  Eddy  might 
please  to  put  into  any  subsequent  edition ;  and  who,  if  they 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  403 

did  not  comply  with  all  these  instructions,  were  bound  to  give 
back  the  lot,  and  the  building  upon  it,  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  to 
her  heirs  forever.  A  Mother  Church  thus  constructed  would 
have  great  possibilities. 

But  here  an  objection  arose.  A  corporation  must  be  formed, 
and  when  Mrs.  Eddy  asked  the  State  to  grant  her  a  new  charter 
for  a  new  church  body,  the  Commissioner  of  Corporations  re- 
fused. His  reason  was  that  the  original  charter,  granted  in 
1879,  had  never  been  annulled  and  was  still  in  force.  But  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  no  intention  of  recognising  the  old  church  or  its 
charter;  if  her  new  directors  merely  held  the  property  in  trust 
for  a  church  organisation,  her  end  would  be  defeated.  As 
the  deed  of  trust  read,  the  directors  were  virtually  to  hold 
the  property  in  trust  for  Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  to  the  end  of 
executing  her  wishes.  There  must  be  a  way,  Mrs.  Eddy  in- 
sisted, in  which  her  trustees  could  hold  the  property  without 
recognising  the  existence  of  the  chartered  church  body,  so  she 
set  her  lawyers  to  work.  "  Guided  by  Divine  Love,"  she  said, 
her  attorneys  found  in  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  a  statute 
whereby  a  body  of  donees  might  be  considered  a  corporate 
body  for  the  purpose  of  taking  and  holding  grants  and  dona- 
tions without  the  formal  organisation  of  a  church.^  This  old 
statute  once  unearthed,  Mrs.  Eddy's  plan  was  entirely  worked 
out:  the  Mother  Church  was  now  controlled  absolutely  by  her 
four  directors ;  the  corporation  consisted  of  her  directors  and 

*  In  Section  1,  Chapter  39,  of  the  Massachusetts  Puilic  Statutes,  It  Is  pro- 
vided that : 

"  The  deacons,  church  wardens,  or  other  similar  officers  of  Church  or  religious 
societies,  and  the  trustees  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  churches  appointed 
according  to  the  discipline  and  usages  thereof,  shall.  If  citizens  of  this  Com- 
monwealth, be  deemed  bodies  corporate  for  the  purpose  of  taking  and  holding 
in  succession  all  grants  and  donations,  whether  of  real  or  personal  estate, 
made  either  to  them  or  their  successors,  or  to  their  respective  churches,  or  to 
the   poor  of  their  churches." 


404        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

not  of  the  church  body ;  and  the  congi-egatlon  had  no  more 
voice  in  the  management  of  the  church  than  has  the  audience 
in  the  management  of  a  theatre. 

The  members  of  the  Boston  church  were  dazzled  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  lavish  gift,  and  very  few  of  them  had  followed  the 
legerdemain  by  which  the  church  had  gone  into  Mrs.  Eddy's 
hands  a  free  body  and  had  come  out  a  close  corporation. 
Mrs.  Eddy  announced  her  victory  in  a  long  communication 
to  the  Journal,  asserting,  "  He  giveth  his  angels  charge  over 
thee,  to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways." 

In  reviewing  this  real-estate  transaction  in  the  Journal, 
Mrs.  Eddy  said: 

I  had  this  desirable  site  transferred  in  a  circuitous,  novel  way.  .  .  . 
I  knew  that  to  God's  gift,  foundation  and  superstructure,  no  one  could 
hold  a  wholly  material  title.  The  land  and  the  church  standing  on  it 
must  be  conveyed  through  a  type  representing  the  true  nature  of  the 
gift;  a  type  morallj'  and  spiritually  inalienable,  but  materially  questionable 
— even  after  the  manner  that  all  spiritual  good  comes  to  Christian  Scientists 
to  the  end  of  taxing  their  faith  in  God  and  their  adherence  to  the 
superiority  of  the  claims  of  spirit  over  matter  or  merely  legal  titles.  .  .  . 
Our  title  to  God's  acres  here  will  be  safe  and  sound  "  when  we  can  read 
our  titles  clear "  to  heavenly  mansions. 

Mrs.  Eddy  now  for  the  first  time  came  out  in  the  Journal 
and  made  a  personal  appeal  for  money  to  build  her  church, 
requesting  that  the  contributions  which  Mr.  Nixon  and  his 
associates  had  returned  to  the  donors  be  doubled  and  forwarded 
to  Boston.  Her  request  had  scarcely  been  printed  when  money 
began  to  pour  in  upon  the  trustees ;  the  old  contributions  were 
doubled  and  in  many  instances  were  increased  threefold. 

The  official  organisation  of  the  Mother  Church  was  made 
September  23,  1892,  but  no  mention  is  made  in  the  Journal 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  405 

of  such  an  occurrence  until  a  year  later.  Then,  on  October  3, 
1893,  the  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Mother  Church  was  held 
in  Chickering  Hall.  The  clerk  announced  in  his  report  that 
"  Since  the  meeting  in  which  the  church  was  formed,  there  have 
been  held  seven  special  and  four  quarterly  meetings.  It  is  in 
the  records  of  those  meetings  that  the  history  of  the  church 
is  contained,  but  its  doings  could  not  be  profitably  set  forth  i/n 
a  report  of  this  kind." 

This  was  the  first  open  official  meeting.  Up  to  this  time 
few  Christian  Scientists  knew  that  a  meeting  for  the  selection 
of  church  officers  had  been  held  in  the  fall  of  1892,  but  sup- 
posed that  there  was  still  no  formal  organisation  of  the  body 
other  than  the  "  voluntary  association  "  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
advocated  as  a  means  to  spiritual  grace,  and  under  which 
the  Massachusetts  law  allowed  the  trustees  to  receive  funds. 

Boston  Christian  Scientists  had  supposed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did 
not  wish  to  organise  her  new  church  under  the  old  charter  be- 
cause, as  she  had  stated,  she  felt  that  material  organisation 
was  a  hindrance  to  spiritual  growth.  But  when  her  new  church 
began  its  operations,  they  were  confronted  by  a  solid  formal 
organisation  which  had  been  effected  without  the  knowledge 
or  consent  of  the  church  body  as  a  whole.  In  addition  to  the 
usual  church  officers,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  chosen  twelve  charter 
members,  whose  duty  it  was  to  ballot  upon  every  candidate  for 
admission  to  the  church — and  these  twelve  were  the  only  persons 
permitted  to  vote  upon  such  candidates.  All  the  original  mem- 
bers, some  of  whom  had  been  identified  with  the  church  for 
twelve  years,  were  considered  as  "  candidates  "  for  admission 
to  the  new  church,  and  were  balloted  upon  by  the  twelve  just 


406        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

as  were  the  new  applicants.  In  this  way  Mrs.  Eddy  was  en- 
abled carefuUy  to  select  the  personnel  of  her  new  church,  and 
to  keep  out  of  it  such  members  of  the  old  organisation  as  had 
not  been  agreeable  to  her.  Every  candidate  for  admission  to 
the  Mother  Church  is  still  balloted  upon  in  this  way. 

The  Boston  church,  built  by  the  contributions  of  Christian 
Scientists  throughout  the  country,  had  now  lost  its  local  char- 
acter. With  a  membership  of  1,502  drawn  almost  entirely 
from  the  branch  churches,  it  was  now  the  head  of  all  the  churches 
in  the  field,  and  at  the  head  of  the  Boston  church  was  Mrs. 
Eddy,  installed  under  the  title  of  "  Pastor  Emeritus,"  and  gov- 
erning through  a  subservient  Board  of  Directors.  No  more  was 
heard  now  concerning  the  spiritual  disadvantages  of  organisa- 
tion. Every  one  realised  that  in  unity  under  Mrs.  Eddy,  and 
in  obedience,  lay  the  road  of  progress.  The  old  watchword, 
"  Mrs.  Eddy  and  God  make  a  majority,"  was  revived. 

"  What,"  asked  the  Rev.  D.  A.  Easton,  pastor  of  the  Mother 

Church,  in  his  Easter  sermon,  1 893,  "  what  does  membership 

in   the   Mother   Church   mean?     It   signifies   obedience.     Mrs. 

Eddy  has  invited  Scientists  everywhere  to  unite  with  the  Mother 

Church.     To  obey  cheerfully  and  loyally  marks  a  growth  in 

Science. 

"Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
Theirs   but   to   do   and   die." 

"  Brethren,"  wrote  Dr.  Foster  Eddy  in  the  Journal,  "  this 
is  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Christian  Science.  The  year  has 
been  a  marked  one  to  us.  The  chaff  has  been  separated  from 
the  wheat  in  a  most  marvellous  manner."  "  We  have  come," 
he  told  Christian  Scientists  at  the  first  annual  meeting,  "to 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  407 

the  time  when  all  should  listen  to  the  voice  of  Love,  and  hearing 
it,  we  should  follow  implicitly  whether  we  understand  or  not, 
and  the  way  will  be  made  plain." 

"  Experience,  and  above  all,  obedience,  are  the  tests  of 
growth  and  understanding  in  Science,"  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to 
her  students  through  the  Journal. 

Members  of  all  the  Christian  Science  churches  in  the  field 
began  to  apply  for  admission  to  the  Mother  Church ;  it  was  an 
expression  of  zeal  and  loyalty  which  all  earnest  believers  were 
eager  to  make.  Mrs.  Eddy's  direct  personal  control  of  the 
Boston  church  soon  meant  the  direct  personal  control  of  a 
membership  reaching  from  Maine  to  California. 

The  Boston  congregation,  which  had  been  meeting  in  public 
halls  for  fifteen  years,  was  at  last  to  have  a  home,  and  the 
building  of  the  Mother  Church  was  about  to  begin.  It  was 
to  be  a  memorial,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  said,  "  for  her  through  whom 
was  revealed  to  you  God's  all-power,  all-presence,  and  all- 
science."  An  inscription  across  the  front  of  the  building  was 
to  proclaim,  as  it  does  to-day,  the  name  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the 
title  of  her  book." 

The  financial  distress  of  1894  caused  a  temporary  check  in 
the  growth  of  the  building  fund,  and,  to  give  the  work  a  fresh 
impetus,  Mrs.  Eddy  made  a  personal  appeal  to  fifty  prominent 
Christian  Scientists,  asking  them  to  contribute  $1,000  each. 
Her  request  was  instantly  complied  with.  On  May  21,  1894, 
the  corner-stone  of  the  Mother  Church  was  laid. 


•  This   inscription    reads  : 

"  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  erected  Anno  Domini,  1894.  A 
testimonial  to  our  beloved  teacher,  the  Rev.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  discoverer 
and  founder  of  Christian  Science :  author  of  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to 
the  Scriptures;  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  and  the 
first  pastor  of   this  denomination." 


408        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

During  the  eighteen  months  that  the  Mother  Church  v/as 
building,  its  membership,  recruited  from  the  churches  in  the 
field,  continued  to  increase.  At  the  second  annual  business 
meeting,  held  in  Copley  Hall,  October  2,  1894,  the  clerk  re- 
ported a  total  membership  of  2,978 — 1,476  having  been  ad- 
mitted during  the  year. 

The  original  Mother  Church  ^  is  a  solidly  built  structure 
of  gray  granite,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  1,100.  In  its 
equipment  it  is  very  like  any  other  modern  church  of  its  size. 
Its  one  unique  feature  is  the  "  Mother  Room,"  since  1903  called 
the  "  room  of  our  Pastor  Emeritus."  This  room,  consecrated 
to  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  use,  is  finished  in  rare  woods,  marble, 
and  onyx,  and  contains  a  superfluity  of  white-and-gold  furni- 
ture. In  the  alcove  are  a  stationary  wash-stand  and  a  folding- 
bed — in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  has  slept  once.  All  the  plumbing 
in  this  alcove  is  gold  plated.  A  stained-glass  window  represents 
Mrs.  Eddy  seated  at  her  table  in  tlie  old  skylight  room  at  Lynn, 
engaged  in  searching  the  Scriptures ;  through  the  open  sky- 
light shines  the  star  of  Bethlehem,  enveloping  her  in  its  rays. 
Before  this  window  hangs  the  Athenian  lamp  which  was  formerly 
kept  burning  night  and  day. 

This  room  was  fitted  up  for  Mrs.  Eddy  by  the  children  of 
Christian  Scientists,  who  were  organised  into  a  society  called 
the  "  Busy  Bees  "  and  who  maintained  a  fund  for  the  purpose 
of  furnishing  and  caring  for  the  Mother  Room.  After  the 
fittings  of  the  room  had  been  paid  for,  the  children  wished 
to  continue  to  express  their  affection  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  their 

'  The  original  Mother  Church  now  forms  the  front  of  an  entirely  new 
buildinsr,  dedicated  in  1906.  The  old  church  is  still  called  the  Mother  Church, 
■while  the  new  structure,  although  many  times  larger  than  the  old,  is  called 
the  Annex. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  409 

offerings  were  used  to  keep  the  room  supplied  with  fresh  flowers 
and  to  maintain  the  Athenian  lamp.  Mrs.  Eddy  showed  her 
appreciation  by  dedicating  to  the  "  Busy  Bees  "  her  next  book, 
Pulpit  and  Press,  a  thin  volume  made  up  of  newspaper  articles 
upon  the  Mother  Church  and  intervicAvs  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  This 
book  sold  at  $1.06  a  copy,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  announced  that  each 
of  the  2,600  children  who  had  contributed  to  her  room  should 
have  one  copy  each  at  half  price,  fifty  cents,  postage  extra. 
By  this  means  the  author  secured  an  additional  sale  of  2,600 
books,  and  the  children  had  the  advantage  of  the  reduction 
in  price.  With  the  possible  exception  of  the  dedication  there 
is  certainly  very  little  in  this  book  of  press  clippings  to  tempt 
a  youthful  reader. 

Dedicatory  services  were  held  in  the  Mother  Church,  January 
6,  1895.  Four  times  the  service  was  repeated  to  audiences 
that  filled  the  assembly-room,  and  an  address  from  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  read.  When  her  little  congregation  used  to  meet  in  Haw- 
thorne Hall,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  usually  been  on  hand  to  remind 
them  that  the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  her; 
but  at  the  dedication  of  her  memorial  church,  with  its  member- 
ship of  nearly  three  thousand,  she  was  not  present.  Her  ab- 
sence must  be  considered  as  an  indication  of  her  failing  strength. 
Afterward,  indeed,  she  upon  two  occasions  spoke  from  the 
pulpit  of  her  new  church,  but  the  days  on  which  she  could  be 
sure  of  herself  were  fewer  than  they  used  to  be. 

From  this  time  on  Mrs.  Eddy  was  a  name  rather  than  a 
person  in  Boston.  Her  presence  there  was  no  longer  necessary 
to  her  best  interests.  In  obtaining  absolute  personal  control 
of  the  Mother  Church,  with  its  national  membership,  she  had 


410  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

ended  her  long  struggle  for  possession.  Before  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  Mother  Church,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  still  to  bring 
questions  of  church  government  before  the  church  body ;  she 
had  to  conciliate,  to  persuade,  to  make  concessions,  and  some- 
times to  explain  and  justify  her  own  conduct.  In  1888  her 
seceding  students  had  even  considered  a  plan  to  expel  Mrs. 
Eddy  from  her  own  church,  and  only  by  constant  exertion  had 
she  kept  the  organisation  under  her  control.  But  from  the 
time  the  Boston  church  was  reorganised,  Mrs.  Eddy's  power 
over  it  was  absolute.  She  was  the  church.  She  wrote  its  by- 
laws, appointed  its  officers,  selected  its  membership,  and  virtu- 
ally owned  the  church  property.  Its  doctrines  were  her  books 
— the  church  was  committed  to  teach  as  the  everlasting  trutK 
what  she  had  written  and  whatever  she  might  write  in  the  future. 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  never  again  called  upon  to  explain  or  to  modify 
her  commands,  and  never  again  was  there  dissension  or  division 
in  her  church.  She  had  completely  conquered  her  spiritual 
kingdom.  She  had  now  but  to  go  on  revealing  the  alleged  will 
of  God,  and  her  church  had  but  to  go  on  obeying  her. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

LIFE  AT  PLEASANT  VIEW MRS.  EDDY  PRODUCES  MORE  CHRISTIAN 

SCIENCE     LITERATURE FOSTER    EDDY    IS     MADE    PUBLISHER 

OF  THE  TEXT-BOOK THE  STORY  OF  HIS  FALL  FROM  FAVOUR 

RULE  OF  SERVICE 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  retired  to  Concord,  N.  H.,  in  the  latter 
part  of  1889,  her  coming  there  was  httle  noticed  by  the  towns- 
folk. Her  name,  which  was  well  enough  known  in  Boston, 
Chicago,  and  Denver,  as  yet  meant  almost  nothing  in  the 
capital  of  her  native  state,  though  her  birthplace  was  scarcely 
six  miles  from  Concord.  Mrs.  Eddy  hved  quietly  at  62  State 
Street  for  nearly  three  years.  She  kept  no  horses  then;  she 
occasionally  went  about  the  town  on  foot,  but  did  not  mingle 
with  the  townspeople.  There  was  a  general  impression  in  the 
neighbourhood  that  she  was  a  broken-down  Boston  spiritualist 
who  had  "  lost  her  power."  Because,  when  the  chill  autumn 
weather  came  on,  she  had  her  front  piazza  inclosed  in  heavy 
sail-cloth  and  took  her  exercise  there,  it  was  supposed  that  she 
was  an  invalid.  Not  until  after  the  dedication  of  the  Mother 
Church,  in  Boston,  1895,  did  Concord  people  begin  to  feel  an 
interest  in  Mrs.  Eddy  and  to  speak  of  her  as  a  public  personage. 
It  was  while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  living  in  State  Street  that  she 
bought  the  property  now  known  as  Pleasant  View,  and  had 
the  modest  farmhouse  which  stood  there  remodelled  into  the 

411 


412        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

cheerful,  jaunty  structure  which  It  is  to-day.  She  added  bow- 
windows  and  verandas,  built  a  porte-cochere  at  the  front  of  the 
house  and  a  tower  at  the  southeast  corner.  Pleasant  View  is 
in  Pleasant  Street,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  west  of  the  centre 
of  the  city. 

The  traditions  of  mystery  and  seclusion  which  of  late  years 
have  grown  up  about  the  place  are  hard  to  reconcile  with  its 
cheerful  aspect.  The  house  stands  upon  a  httle  knoll,  very 
near  the  road;  the  drives  and  gateway  are  wide;  there  are  no 
high  fences  or  shaded  walks ;  the  trees  are  kept  closely  trimmed, 
the  turf  neatly  shaven,  and  the  flower-beds  are  tidy  and  gay. 
There  is  a  fountain,  and  a  boat-house,  and  a  fish-pond  with  a 
fine  clump  of  willows.  The  tower  rooms,  which  were  occupied 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  have  large  windows  looking  southward  down  a 
narrow  valley,  at  the  end  of  which  rise  gentle  green  hills,  one 
above  another,  their  sides  covered  with  fields  and  woodland 
which  admirably  distribute  light  and  shadow.  These  hills, 
besides  being  peaceful  and  pleasant  to  the  eye,  must  have  had 
many  associations  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  among  them  lies  the  farm 
upon  which  she  was  born  and  where  she  spent  her  childhood. 
Every  day  for  seventeen  years  Mrs.  Eddy  could  look  off  toward 
Bow  and  measure  the  distance  she  had  travelled.  Whatever  an 
architect  or  gardener  might  find  to  quarrel  with  at  Pleasant 
View,  it  was  certainly  a  cheerful  place  for  an  old  lady  to  live 
in,  and  looked  out  over  the  gentlest  and  friendliest  of  landscapes. 

After  she  moved  into  Pleasant  View,  Mrs.  Eddy  gradually 
added  more  land  to  the  estate,  enlarged  the  stables,  and  built 
a  house  for  the  gardener.  She  continued  to  live  as  simply  and 
methodically  as  before.     She   rose  early,  and  after  breakfast 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  413 

usually  walked  about  the  fish-pond  or  paced  the  back  veranda. 
She  invariably  took  a  nap  before  dinner,  which  she  had  in  the 
middle  of  the  day.  Promptly  at  two  o'clock  she  started  upon 
her  daily  drive.  Mr.  Frye  still  acted  as  her  secretary  and 
companion,  and  Martha  Morgan  attended  largely  to  the  house- 
keeping. Later  Mrs,  Eddy  sent  for  Miss  Kate  Shannon,  a 
music-teacher  in  Montreal ;  for  Mrs.  Laura  Sargent,  who  is 
still  in  attendance  upon  her,  and  for  Mrs.  Pamelia  Leonard, 
who  died  at  her  home  in  Brooklyn,  January  8,  1908,  under  the 
care  of  a  physician.^ 

All  the  members  of  her  household  lived  as  if  they  were  exactly 
as  old  and  as  much  enfeebled  as  Mrs.  Eddy.  They  rose  early, 
retired  early ;  never  went  out  of  the  house  except  upon  her 
commissions ;  never  dined  out,  received  visits,  or  went  to  Boston 
for  a  holiday.  And  why  should  they,  when  they  believed  that 
the  most  important  things  that  had  happened  in  the  world  for 
at  least  eighteen  hundred  years  were  daily  going  on  at  Pleasant 
View.'^  They  had  built  their  hope  upon  the  fundamental  propo- 
sition that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  inspired  revelator  of  God ;  that, 
as  the  Journal  expressed  it,  she  had  retired  to  Pleasant  View 
to  "  commune  always  with  God  in  the  mount."  To  be  in  the 
house  with  Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  ultimate  experience,  and  it 
left  them  nothing  more  to  wish  for.  Mrs.  Eddy  filled  their 
lives.  Her  breakfast,  her  nap,  her  correspondence,  her  visitors, 
her  clothes,  even,  were  matters  of  the  greatest  importance. 
Her  faithful  women  especially  delighted  in  dressing  her  hair, 

^  A  Christian  Scientist  of  Brooklyn  who  knew  the  circumstances  of  the  death 
of  Mrs.  Leonard,  has  written  to  the  author,  since  the  appearance  of  this 
history  in  McClure's  Magazine,  to  say,  that  although  a  physician  was  called 
to  see  Mrs.  Leonard  before  her  death,  this  was  done  in  order  to  comply  with 
the  law  requiring  the  signature  of  an  attending  physician  to  bo  attached  to 
the  death  certificate  upon  which  the  burial  permit  is  issued;  and  that  Mrs. 
Leonard   never   lost   faith   in   Christian   Science. 


414        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

which  since  she  left  Boston  she  had  ceased  to  colour,  and  which 
was  now  soft  and  white.  They  used  to  talk  among  themselves 
about  her  "  final  demonstration  "  in  those  days,  the  idea  being 
that  she  was  husbanding  her  strength  to  perform  some  one  final 
wonder  which  would  convince  the  world.  Sometimes,  in  their 
fireside  speculations,  they  encouraged  one  another  in  the  hope 
that,  when  the  time  came,  Mrs.  Eddy  would  even  demonstrate 
over  death.  They  seem  to  have  expected  that  this  last  triumph 
would  come,  not  as  a  mere  prolongation  of  life,  but  as  a  sort 
of  definite  combat,  a  struggle  from  which  she  would  rise  trans- 
figured." While  Mrs.  Eddy's  triumph  over  death  was  never 
an  openly  avowed  belief  of  the  church,  it  was  the  fearful  hope 
of  many  a  devoted  creature.  These  credulous  and  fervent  souls 
used  to  go  upon  pilgrimages  to  Concord,  see  the  venerable 
Mother  through  their  tears  when  she  addressed  them  briefly 
from  her  balcony,  and  go  away  saying  that  she  had  the  figure 
of  a  girl,  that  her  face  was  as  full  and  smooth  as  the  face  of  a 
young  woman. 

As  soon  as  Mrs.  Eddy  withdrew  from  secular  life  and  became 
inaccessible  to  the  majority  of  her  followers,  legends  began 
to  grow  up  about  her.  She  realised  this  well  enough,  and,  at 
her  request,  her  adopted  son  bought  a  notebook  and  set  down 
in  it  some  of  her  wonderful  sayings  and  doings.     One  of  the 


2  We  may  here  print  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Evening  Journal,  July  1,  1904, 
signed  by  Mrs.  Augusta  E.  Stetson,  who  organised  the  first  Christian  Science 
church   in   New   York  : 

"  Any  suggestion  or  question  of  a  successor  to  Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  Leader  of 
the  Christian  Science  movement  is  one  that  could  not  be  entertained  nor  con- 
sidered by  any  loyal  Christian  Scientist.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  and  ever  will  be  the 
only  Leader  of  the  Christian  Science  movement.  There  is  no  question  among 
lovai  Christian  Scientists  as  to  her  continuing  to  lead  them  on  to  the  demonstra- 
tion of  eternal  life,  through  faith  in  God  and  the  understanding  of  the  law 
of  the  spirit  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  which  sets  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death."  ^    , 

Whatever  Mrs.  Stetson  may  have  meant  by  "  eternal  life,"  such  aeclarations 
were   interpreted  literally   by   simple-minded  believers. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  415 

stories  he  wrote  down  was  that  which  Mrs.  Eddy  often  used 
to  tell  her  household  concerning  the  state  of  ecstasy  in  which 
her  own  mother  lived  before  Mrs.  Eddy's  birth.  Mrs.  Baker, 
60  the  legend  went,  felt  as  if  all  the  vital  forces  of  the  world 
had  united  in  her,  and  she  knew  that  she  was  to  bring  forth  a 
prodigy.  This  story,  of  course,  does  not  agree  with  the  one 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  used  to  tell  her  early  students  in  Lynn,  of 
how  she  had  been  born  into  the  world  an  unwelcome  child,  and 
how  every  man's  hand  had  been  against  her,  etc. 

Although  Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  a  wealthy  woman,  she  was 
still  prudent  in  the  use  of  her  money.  Her  home  at  Pleasant 
View  was  comfortable  but  not  luxurious.  There  was  nothing 
ostentatious  about  her  manner  of  living,  and  she  never  spent 
money  lavishly,  even  upon  herself.  Her  laces  and  jewels,  even 
the  diamond  cross  which  is  conspicuous  in  many  of  her  photo- 
graphs, were  given  to  her  by  devoted  students.  The  writer 
has  an  amusing  letter  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  thanks  one  of  her 
students  for  a  piano,  referring  to  the  instrument  as  a  "  me- 
mento." 

Mrs.  Eddy's  little  economies  are  always  interesting  and 
characteristic.  On  one  occasion  she  summoned  Dr.  Foster's 
old  friend,  William  Clark  of  Barre,  Vt.,  to  come  to  Pleasant 
View  as  gardener.  She  wearied  of  Clark  in  a  little  while,  de- 
cided that  he  ought  to  be  a  teacher  of  Christian  Science  instead 
of  a  gardener,  and  sent  him  away.  While  Clark  had  worked 
on  her  place  Mrs.  Eddy  had  paid  him  gardener's  wages,  but 
she  felt  that  he  ought  to  be  reimbursed  for  the  expense  he  had 
Incurred  in  moving  to  Concord  and  In  quitting  his  former  occu- 
pation.    Accordingly,   she   called   Dr.   Foster   into   her   study 


416        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

and  handed  him  three  hundred  dollars,  telling  him  to  offer  the 
money  to  Clark,  but  adding  grimly,  "  It  will  prove  a  curse 
to  him  if  he  takes  it."  Dr.  Foster  warned  Clark  to  that  effect, 
and  Clark,  rather  reluctantly,  refused  the  money.  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  for  some  time  been  promising  Dr.  Foster  a  diamond  ring 
for  his  little  finger,  and  then  had  looked  over  jewellers'  cata- 
logues and  discussed  the  sizes  and  prices  of  stones.  In  the  end 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  decided  upon  a  smaller  stone  than  the  one  Dr. 
Foster  selected.  He  now  took  a  hundred  dollars  of  the  money 
which  had  been  offered  to  Clark  in  such  a  forbidding  fashion, 
added  it  to  the  appropriation  made  for  his  ring,  and  got  the 
diamond  he  wanted.  The  rest  of  the  money  Mrs.  Eddy  put 
into  a  stained-glass  window  for  the  "  Mother  Room  "  in  the 
Boston  church — the  window  which  represents  Mrs.  Eddy  sitting 
in  the  skylight  room  at  Lynn  and  searching  the  Scriptures 
beneath  the  rays  of  a  star. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  retirement  did,  as  she  had  anticipated,  give  her 
more  time  for  literary  pursuits.  She  was  still  busily  writing 
and  rewriting  Science  and  Health,  as  she  had  been  doing  for 
twenty  years.  New  editions  of  the  book  came  out  in  1891, 
1894,  and  1896.  Loyal  Scientists  were  then,  as  now,  expected 
to  purchase  each  new  edition  (at  $3.18  a  volume),  although 
Mrs.  Eddy  refused  to  buy  back  their  old  editions  at  any  price. 
Since  her  followers  lived  by  one  book,  it  behooved  them  to  have 
the  best  edition  of  it,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  always  pronounced  the 
new  one  the  best.  Often  a  new  edition  contained  important 
changes  (such  as  permission  to  use  morphia  In  cases  of  violent 
pain),  and  after  the  1891  edition  was  out,  a  Christian  Scientist 
who  still  regulated  his  life  by  the  1886  edition  was  li\ang,  spirit- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  417 

ually,  in  the  Dark  Ages.     As  Foster  Eddy  wrote  concerning 
the  1891  edition: 

Mother  has  never  had  time,  until  the  last  two  years,  to  take  the  numerous 
gems  she  has  found  in  the  deej)  mines  of  truth  and  polish  them  on  Heaven's 
emery  wheel,  arrange  them  in  order,  and  give  them  a  setting  so  that  all 
could  behold  and  see  their  perfect  purity.  Now  here  they  all  are  in  this 
new  revised  "  Science  and  Health." 

By  the  time  the  1891  edition  was  exhausted,  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies  of  Science  and  Health  had 
been  sold  since  the  book  was  first  published  in  1875.  This  did 
not  mean  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  persons  owned 
copies  of  the  book, — there  are  not  half  that  many  Christian 
Scientists  in  the  world  to-day, — but  that  every  Christian  Scien- 
tist owned  several  copies.  The  Journal  told  them  that  they 
could  not  own  too  many. 

Mrs.  Eddy  always  displayed  great  ingenuity  in  stimulating 
the  demand  for  her  books.  In  1897,  when  she  first  published 
her  book  Miscellaneous  Writings, — a  volume  of  her  collected 
editorials  from  the  Journal,^she  issued  the  following  pro- 
nunciamento : 

Christian  Scientists  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  are  hereby  enjoined 
not  to  teach  a  student  of  Christian  Science  for  one  year,  commencing 
March  14,  1897.  "  Miscellaneous  Writings "  is  calculated  to  prepare  the 
minds  of  all  true  thinkers  to  understand  the  Christian  Science  text  book 
more  correctly  than  a  student  can.  The  Bible,  Science  and  Health  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures,  and  my  other  published  works  are  the  only  proper 
instructors  for  this  hour.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Christian  Scientists 
to  circulate  and  to  sell  as  many  of  these  books  as  they  can. 

If  a  member  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ  Scientist  shall  fail  to  obey 
this  injunction  it  shall  render  him  liable  to  lose  his  membership  in  this 
church.  Mary  Baker  Eddy." 


*  Christian   Science   Journal,   March,    1897, 


418        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

There  were  at  this  time  about  fifty  Christian  Science  acade- 
mies in  operation,  and  hundreds  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  made 
their  living  by  teaching  Christian  Science.  They  were,  with- 
out warning,  directed  to  give  up  their  means  of  support  for 
one  year  in  order  to  increase  the  sale  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  new  book, 
and  to  sell  the  book,  without  commission,  under  penalty  of 
expulsion  from  the  church.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say 
that   they   obeyed  without   a  murmur. 

Loyal  Christian  Scientists  made  an  endeavour  to  buy  not 
only  a  copy  of  every  new  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  but 
of  every  book  that  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote.  Mrs.  Eddy  discourages 
general  reading,  and  particularly  the  perusal  of  fiction.*  She 
has  no  tolerance  for  low-priced  books.  They  "  lower  the  in- 
tellectual standard  to  accommodate  the  purse  "  and  "  meet  a 
frivolous  demand  for  amusement  instead  of  instruction."  ^  For 
her  own  books  Mrs.  Eddy  has  always  demanded  very  high  prices. 
With  her  own  audience  she  was,  of  course,  without  a  rival. 
Many  of  her  followers  read  no  books  at  all  but  hers. 

In  1893  Mrs.  Eddy  published  Christ  and  Christmas,  an 
illustrated  poem  which  she  afterward  temporarily  suppressed 
because  the  pictures  were  displeasing  to  many  people.  One 
picture  represents  Jesus  Christ  standing  beside  a  big,  black, 
upholstered  coffin,  raising  to  life  an  emaciated  woman.  An- 
other represents  a  woman,  strangely  like  Mrs.  Eddy's  author- 
ised photographs  in  appearance,  standing  at  a  bedside  and 
raising  a  prostrate  form,  while  a  great  star  burns  above  her 

*  It  is  the  tangled  barbarisms  of  learning  whicli  we  deplore, — the  mere 
dogma,  the  speculative  theory,  the  nauseous  fiction.  Novels,  remarkable  only 
for  their  exaggerated  pictures,  impossible  ideals,  and  specimens  of  depravity, 
fill  our  young  readers  with  wrong  tastes  and  sentiments,  etc. — Science  and 
Health    (1898),    p.    91. 

6  Ibid. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  419 

head.  In  another,  Christ  is  represented  as  hand  in  hand  with 
a  woman  who  bears  a  tablet  inscribed  "  Christian  Science." 
Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  the  text  of  this  grim  gift-book,  and  a  fly-leaf 
accredits  the  pictures  to  "  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  and  James  F. 
Gilman,  artists." 

In  1891  Mrs.  Eddy  published  Retrospection  and  Introspec- 
tion, a  volume  of  autobiographical  sketches  in  which  many  of 
the  events  of  the  author's  life  are  highly  idealised. 

At  Pleasant  View  the  members  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  household  led 
a  life  vastly  more  peaceful  than  ever  they  had  known  in 
Columbus  or  Commonwealth  Avenues.  But  discipline  was  by  no 
means  relaxed.  Mr.  Frye  still  had  his  bad  quarter  of  an 
hour  when  it  was  good  for  him.  Mrs.  Eddy  "  turned  against  " 
the  faithful  Martha  Morgan  and  packed  her  back  to  Maine. 
She  tired  of  Mrs.  Anne  M.  Otis,  whom  she  had  called  to  build 
up  a  Christian  Science  church  in  Concord,  and  sent  her  back 
to  the  West.  Eventually  even  her  adopted  son  went  the  way 
of  all  her  favourites.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  fond  of  Foster,  and  that  his  personality  was  extremely 
agreeable  to  her.  S!:e  may  even  have  dropped  a  tear  upon 
his  death-warrant,  but  she  signed  it  none  the  less.  The  story 
of  Foster's  rise  and  decline  is  as  follows : 

At  the  close  of  1892  Mr.  William  G.  Nixon  resigned  his  post 
as  Mrs.  Eddy's  publisher,  and  was  succeeded  by  E.  J.  Foster 
Eddy.  Dr.  Foster  had  had  no  experience  whatever  in  publish- 
ing, but  the  position  was  a  lucrative  one  and  Mrs.  Eddy  desired 
her  son  to  have  it.  She  saw,  too,  a  way  to  increase  her  own 
profits.     Science  and  Health  sold  for  $3.18  a  copy.®     The  man- 

•  The  eighteen  cents  paid  the  postage.  The  book  was,  of  course,  usually 
ordered  by  mail. 


420        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

ufacture  of  each  book  cost  just  forty-seven  and  a  half  cents. 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  getting  one  dollar  royalty  upon  every 
copy  sold  and  the  publisher  got  the  rest.  When  her  adopted 
son  began  to  publish  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  worked 
her  royalty  up  to  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  copy,  since  Dr.  Foster 
was  readily  persuaded  that  it  was  all  in  the  family. 

The  sale  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  works  was  exceedingly  profitable 
to  her  and  even  more  profitable  to  her  publisher,  since  the  market 
for  them  was  ready-made  and  there  was  never  a  dollar  spent 
in  general  advertising.  Dr.  Foster's  accounts  show  that  in  the 
year  1893  he  paid  Mrs.  Eddy  $11,692.79  in  royalties ;  in  1894< 
her  royalties  amounted  to  $14,834.12;  and  in  1895  she  received 
from  Dr.  Foster  $18,481.97,  making  a  total  profit  of  $45,008.88 
for  the  three  years.  Needless  to  say,  her  annual  royalties  have 
greatly  increased  since  1895,  and  have  now  reached  a  figure 
which  puts  all  other  American  authors  to  financial  shame. 

But  from  the  day  that  Mrs.  Eddy  installed  Dr.  Foster  as 
her  publisher,  his  years  were  numbered.  The  position  was  the 
most  remunerative  she  had  to  offer,  and  this  new  and  substan- 
tial mark  of  her  favour  only  increased  the  existing  prejudice 
against  her  son.  Ever  since  Foster's  adoption,  jealousy  had 
rankled  in  the  household.  Mr.  Frye  had  always  watched  him 
with  a  stony  and  distrustful  eye.  Each  had  accused  the  other 
of  "  mesmerising  "  Mrs.  Eddy  against  him,  and  of  using  her 
affection  for  his  own  advantage. 

There  was  jealousy  in  Boston,  as  well  as  at  Pleasant  View. 
Some  of  the  workers  there  complained  that  Dr.  Foster  had  been 
made  too  prominent,  and  that  he  had  more  personal  influence 
than  any  one  except  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  should  have;  others 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  421 

asserted  that  he  over-represented  and  misrepresented  Mrs.  Eddy. 

After  he  became  his  mother's  publisher,  Dr.  Foster  had  to 
be  in  Boston  much  of  the  time,  and  stayed,  when  he  was  there, 
at  the  Commonwealth  Avenue  house.  In  his  absence  from  Con- 
cord, one  charge  after  another  was  made  against  him  to  Mrs. 
Eddy.  Pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  her  from  this 
quarter  and  from  that,  and  she  seems  to  have  realised  that  her 
favourite  was  marked  for  sacrifice.  Dr.  Foster  relates  that, 
upon  one  occasion  when  they  were  alone  together,  his  mother 
drew  him  to  the  sofa  and  took  his  hand,  saying  despairingly, 
"  Bennie,  if  I  ever  ask  you  to  go  away  from  me,  do  not  leave 
me."  She  told  him  that  she  wanted  him  always  near  her,  but 
that  "  mesmerism  "  had  come  between  them.  Undoubtedly,  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself  had  become  somewhat  alarmed  when  she  realised 
what  authority  she  had  placed  in  Dr.  Foster's  hands ;  it  was 
quite  possible  for  her  to  trust  him  and  to  doubt  him,  to  want 
him  and  to  plan  his  downfall  at  the  same  time.  The  letters 
which  she  wrote  him  after  she  sent  him  away  have  not  a  candid 
tone. 

Stories  kept  coming  to  Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  effect  that  Dr. 
Foster  was  short  in  his  accounts,  that  he  had  conducted  himself 
improperly  with  a  married  woman  who  had  done  some  work  in 
the  publication-office,  etc.,  etc.  Finally,  in  the  spring  of  1896, 
Mrs.  Eddy  took  the  publishing  business  away  from  her  son . 
and  transferred  it  to  Joseph  Armstrong,  a  Christian  Scientist 
who  had  formerly  been  a  banker  in  Kansas.  Foster  Eddy  was 
now  instructed  to  go  to  Philadelphia  and  build  up  a  church. 
There  was  already  a  Christian  Science  church  in  Philadelphia, 
and  when  Dr.  Foster  arrived  there  he  found  that  he  had  been 


422        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

discredited  with  the  Philadelphia  following  by  letters  from 
Boston.  It  was  his  mother's  way  not  to  tell  him  frankly  that 
she  was  through  with  him,  though,  after  he  reached  his  destina- 
tion, she  dropped  the  old  endearing  appellations,  and  no  longer 
signed  herself  "  Mother,"  but  wrote  to  him  in  the  following 
tone : 

Dear  Doctor,  I  have  silenced  every  word  of  the  slander  started  in 
Boston  about  that  woman  by  saying  that  I  had  not  the  least  idea  of  any 
wrong  conduct  between  you  and  her,  for  I  know  you  are  chaste.  .  .  . 
This  silly  stuff  is  dead.    Always  kindly  yours. 

Mary  Baker  Eddy. 

Dr.  Foster  left  Boston  by  water,  and  on  the  day  he  sailed 
away  Mrs.  Eddy  sent  flowers  to  the  boat,  and  a  crowd  of 
Christian  Scientists  were  at  the  wharf  to  see  him  off.  But 
as  the  adopted  son  stood  by  the  deck-rail  with  his  bouquet  in 
his  hands,  and  watched  the  water  widen  between  him  and  Bos- 
ton, he  realised  the  import  of  this  cordiality,  and  knew  that, 
through  the  crowd  on  the  shore,  his  mother  had  waved  him  a 
blithe  and  long  adieu. 

After  Dr.  Foster  reached  Philadelphia  and  found  that  Chris- 
tian Scientists  there  had  been  warned  to  have  nothing"  to  do 
with  him,  he  went  back  to  Concord  to  lay  his  wrongs  before 
Mrs.  Eddy.  She  granted  him  an  audience  in  the  house  in  which, 
a  few  months  before,  he  had  been  master,  but  cut  short  the 
interview  and  went  upstairs  while  he  was  speaking.^    Dr.  Foster 

'  After  this  Interview  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  Dr.  Foster  the  following  letter,  In 
which  she  accuses  him  of  "  keeping  his  mind  on  her  "  and  weakening  her,  as 
she  used  to  charge  Spofford  and  Arens  with  doing : 

"  Pleasant  View, 

"Concord,    N.    H..   March    17,   1897. 

Dr.    Poster    Eddy — My    dear    Benny :     I    was    not    'falsely '    referring    to 

your  mind  on  me.     I  am  not  or  cannot  be  mistaken  now  in  whose  mind  Is  on 

me.     My  letter  was  dated  the  8th  of  March.     I  shall  not  soon  forget  that  time. 

When  you   went   to   Phila.    at   my   request   I   made   everything   ready   for   your 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  423 

knew  his  mother  well  enough  to  realise  that  she  was  through 
with  him.  He  made  no  attempt  to  push  his  case  or  further 
to  practise  Christian  Science.  He  received  no  opportunity 
to  refute  the  charges  made  against  him. 

As  Mrs.  Eddy's  son  and  personal  representative,  Dr.  Foster 
had  been  regarded  as  a  sort  of  crown  prince  by  Christian 
Scientists.  He  had  been  the  first  president  of  the  Mother 
Church,  had  held  Mrs.  Eddy's  highest  offices,  and  had  been 
listened  to  as  her  mouthpiece.  Ever  since  she  had  become  in- 
accessible at  Pleasant  View,  Dr.  Foster  had  been  the  natural 
recipient  of  the  adulation  that  had  formerly  been  hers.  His 
arrival  at  a  Christian  Science  convention  caused  almost  as  much 
excitement  as  if  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  had  come.  Wherever  the 
Doctor  went  in  Boston,  he  was  pretty  sure  to  meet  people  who 
greeted  him  with  the  greatest  deference  and  an  eager,  anxious 
smile.     Even  those  who  did  not  like  him  tried  to  please  him, 

success,   even  in   the  Church   rules,   Art.   8,   Sec.   14,   that  nothing  should  impede 

you.     One   of    your   first    acts    was   to    consult   in   your   movements   and 

not  to   consult   me   before   doing  it. 

"  This  laid  the  foundation  of  what  followed.  Had  my  letter  that  I  sent 
by  you  to  that  church  been  read  in  the  Church  of  Philadelphia  on  March  14, 
as  I  told  you  to  have  it,  it  would  have  saved  you  being  kicked  out  of  the 
readership.  You  never  named  to  me  you  intended  to  stop  till  Monday  in 
Boston.  You  conceal  from  me  all  you  should  tell — and  which  I  would  save 
you  from  doing — and  then  when  you  get  into  difficulty  come  to  me  for  help. 
Y'ou  had  everything  in  your  power  wherebv  to  control  the  situation.  See 
Church    Manual,   pp.    13.    Sees.    3   and    16.     Sec.    10,   edition   .5. 

"  But  you  were  governed  by  hypnotism  to  work  against  me  and  yourself  and 
take  me  as  your  authority  for  so  doing.  Then  turn  all  your  papers  of  the 
fight  and  the  burden  of  its  settlement  on  to  me  and  yourself  go  on  a  pleasure 
trip  to  Washington,  and  after  all  this  tell  me  that  you  cared  not  for  yourself 
in  the  case  but  for  me  ! 

"  The  church  has  written  me  a  loving  letter  with  regrests  [regrets]  that 
they  had   to  do   by   you   as   they  did. 

"  You  say  those  with  whom  you  now  are  love  you.  I  hope  this  will  continue 
to  be  so.     As  ever,  lovingly,  Mother. 

"  N.  B. — I  open  this  letter  to  speak  briefly  of  the  apochryphal  gospel.  I 
read  till  disgusted  and  stopped.  '  Hermas '  "is  an  imaginary  character,  and 
the  '  old  woman  '  has  no  more  relation  to  me  than  Pilate's  wife ;  both  are 
depicted  as  good  representative  characters  for  that  time  and  under  those 
circumstances.     They  may  or  may  not  have  been  human  beings. 

"  Such  reading  tends  to  foster  the  disease  of  moral  insanity  or  idiocy  that 
the  magic  of  Mohammedism  and  the  hypnotism  of  our  time  are  engendering. 

"  The  ethics  of  the  dialogues  in  that  spurious  book  are  excellent  and  that 
makes  the  book  dangerous  lest  thoy  cause  the  stuff  that  accompanies  them  to 
take  form  in  thought  as  veritable  characters  and  history,  and  even  prophetic 
— which  it  is  not.  M.  B.   E." 


424        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

because  they  believed  that  he  could  influence  Mrs.  Eddy  for  or 
against  any  one. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  word  had  made  Foster,  and  her  word  unmade 
him.  From  the  moment  the  Christian  Scientists  understood  that 
he  was  no  longer  in  favour  with  his  mother,  Dr.  Foster  was 
ostracised.  The  people  who  had  once  crowded  about  him  when- 
ever he  appeared  in  public  no  longer  recognised  him  when  they 
passed  him  in  the  street.  When  he  approached  a  group  of 
Christian  Scientists,  they  melted  away.  Legally,  of  course, 
he  was  still  Mrs.  Eddy's  adopted  son,  but  she  did  not  trouble 
herself  about  that,  apparently.  She  made  no  charge  against 
him,  demanded  no  explanation,  but  erased  him  from  her  con- 
sciousness as  if  he  were  a  coachman  whom  she  had  hired  and 
discharged.  Dr.  Foster  travelled  in  the  West  and  in  Alaska 
for  a  time,  and  then  settled  down  at  his  old  home  at  Waterbury 
Center,  Vt.,  where  he  now  lives.  Like  the  rest  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
outworn  favourites,  he  has  been  content  to  live  very  quietly 
since  his  fall,  and  he  has  not  even  resumed  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine, for  fear  of  further  angering  his  adopted  mother. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  retirement  in  Concord  meant  no  relaxation  of 
her  vigilance  over  her  church.  Scarcely  a  day  passed  that 
one  of  her  executives  did  not  board  the  train  at  Boston,  take 
the  two  hours'  ride  up  the  Merrimac,  and  present  himself  at 
Pleasant  View.  The  affairs  of  the  Mother  Church  ran  much 
more  smoothly  with  Mrs.  Eddy  out  of  the  city.  The  hundred 
little  annoyances  which  had  so  often  led  her  into  indiscretions 
were  now  kept  from  her.  She  planted  and  pulled  up,  built 
and  tore  down, — or,  as  she  says,  armed  with  pen  and  pruning- 
hook,  she  commanded  and  countermanded, — as  tirelessly  as  ever; 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  425 

but  now  that  she  worked  through  other  people,  her  plans  were 
not  executed  so  rapidly,  and  she  had  time  to  change  her  mind 
before  her  first  decision  was  made  public.  It  was  now  possible 
for  her  executives  to  present  questions  to  her  with  some  care. 
They  kept  Mrs.  Eddy  informed  upon  the  affairs  of  the  Boston 
church  and  upon  what  went  on  in  the  field,  but  petty  annoyances 
they  kept  from  her.  Her  inability  to  interfere  hourly  gave  her 
assistants  an  opportunity  to  execute  her  wishes  temperately 
and  successfully.  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  "  Discoverer  and  Founder 
of  Christian  Science,"  was  still  in  the  field,  through  her  execu- 
tives, as  active  and  powerful  as  ever;  while  Mrs.  Eddy,  the 
woman,  with  her  disturbing  personal  idiosyncrasies,  was  safely 
housed  at  Pleasant  View,  surrounded  by  devoted  and  sympa- 
thetic persons  whose  constant  care  it  was  to  calm  and  soothe 
her. 

After  she  first  took  up  her  residence  at  Pleasant  View,  Mrs. 
Eddy  visited  Boston  four  times,  and  on  each  occasion  remained 
in  the  city  only  a  few  hours.®  In  her  retirement  she  has  not 
been  cut  off  from  such  of  her  followers  as  she  has  wished  to  see. 
By  a  by-law  of  the  church,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  empowered  to  send  for 
\  any  Christian  Scientist,  wherever  he  may  be,  and  to  bring  him 
5  to  Pleasant  View,  to  serve  her  for  as  long  as  twelve  months,  if 
need  be,  in  whatever  capacity  she  may  designate ;  his  recompense 


*  The  first  of  these  was  on  April  1,  1895,  when  she  came  unannounced,  bring- 
ing the  members  of  her  Concord  household  with  her,  and  inspected,  for  the 
first  time,  the  newly  compl(>ted  Mother  Church.  She  spent  the  night  In  the 
building,  occupying  the  folding-bed  in  the  Mother  Room,  while  her  attendants 
slept  all  night  in  the  pews.  The  next  month,  on  Sunday,  May  26,  Mrs.  Eddy 
went  again  to  the  Mother  Church  and  spoke  from  the  pulpit  for  twenty 
minutes.  Again,  in  February,  1896,  she  preached  in  the  Mother  Church,  re- 
turning to  Concord  in  a  private  car  the  same  afternoon.  She  made  her  fourth 
visit  to  Boston  on  Monday,  June  5,  1899.  She  spent  the  night  in  her  Com- 
monwealth Avenue  house,  then  occupied  by  Septimus  J.  Hanna,  the  reader  of 
the  Mother  Church,  and  on  Tuesday  afternoon  she  appeared  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  church,  held  in  Tremont  Temple.  Mrs.  Eddy  addressed  the 
meeting  briefly,  and  returned  to  Concord  the  same  afternoon. 


426        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

being  twelve  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  lils  expenses.^  Under 
this  rule,  a  bank  president  whose  time  is  worth  $50,000  a  year 
might  be  summoned  to  Pleasant  View  to  serve  for  a  hundred 
dollars  a  month.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  last  woman  in  the 
world  to  make  unreasonable  demands  of  her  influential  fol- 
lowers, and  no  greater  honour  can  befall  a  Christian  Scientist 
than  to  be  thus  summoned  by  his  Leader.  Such  a  call  is  looked 
upon  as  a  recognition  of  the  recipient's  progress  in  "  Science," 
and  as  a  rare  opportunity  for  spiritual  growth.  Concerning 
this  service  at  Pleasant  View,  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  in  the  Christian 
Science  Sentinel  of  April  25,  1903. 

SIGNIFICANT  QUESTIONS 

MAEY    BAKER    G.    EDDY 

Who  shall  be  greatest? 

The  great  Master  said:  "He  that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven" — 
that  is,  he  who  hath  in  his  heart  in  the  least  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the 
reign  of  holiness,  shall  be  greatest. 

Who  shall  inherit  the  earth? 

The  meek  who  sit  at  the  feet  of  Truth,  bathing  the  human  understanding 
with  tears  of  repentance,  and  washing  it  clean  from  the  taints  of  self- 
righteousness,  hypocrisy,  envy — shall  inherit  the  earth — for  wisdom  is  justi- 
fied of  her  children. 

Who  shall  dwell  in  Thy  Holy  Hill? 

He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh  righteousness,  and  speaketh  the 
truth  in  his  heart. 

Who  shall  be  called  to  Pleasant  View? 

He  who  strives  and  attains — who  has  the  divine  presumption  to  say: 
"  For  I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to 
keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day"   (St.  Paul). 


..^^  church  by-law  in  regard  to  this  rule  of  service  reads  as  follows : 

D  written   request   of  our  Pastor   Emeritus,   Mrs.    Eddy,  for  assistance, 

tbe  board  of  Directors  shall  immediately  notify  the  member  of  this  church 
Whom  she  selects,  to  go  within  ten  days  to  her  and  to  remain  if  needed 
twelve  months  consecutively,  and  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  this  member  to  comply 
tnerewith.  Members  who  leave  her  in  less  time  and  when  she  needs  them, 
are  liable  to  have  their  names  dropped  from  the  church."  Church  Manual,  Art. 
22,  Sec.  10. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  427 

It  goes  without  sa3'ing  that  such  a  one  was  never  called  to  Pleasant  View 
for  penance  or  reformation;  and  I  call  none  others,  unless  I  mistake  their 
calling.  No  mesmerist,  nor  disloyal  Christian  Scientist  is  fit  to  come 
hither,  I  have  no  use  for  such,  and  there  cannot  be  found  at  Pleasant 
View  one  of  this  sort.  "  For  all  that  do  these  things  are  an  abomination 
unto  the  Lord,  and  because  of  these  abominations  tlie  Lord  thy  God  doth 
drive  them  out  from  before  thee."     (Deuteronomy,  18.) 

It  is  true  that  loyal  Christian  Scientists  called  to  the  home  of  the 
Discoverer  and  Founder  of  Christian  Science,  can  acquire  in  one  year  the 
Science  that  otherwise  might  cost  them  a  half  century.  But  this  should 
not  be  the  incentive  for  going  thither.  Better  far  that  Christian  Scientists 
go  to  help  their  helper,  and  thus  lose  all  selfishness  as  she  has  lost  it,  and 
thereby  help  themselves  and  the  whole  world,  as  she  has  done  according  to 
this  saying  of  Christ  Jesus:  "And  whosoever  doth  not  bear  his  cross  and 
come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

JOSEPHINE     CUKTIS     WOOBBURY    AND     THE     ROMANTIC     SCHOOL 

BIRTH    OF    THE    PRINCE    OF    PEACE MRS.    EDDY    WITHDRAWS 

HER  SUPPORT "  WAR  IN  HEAVEN  " 

Mrs.  Eddy's  absence  from  Boston  made  it  possible  for  some 
of  her  ambitious  leaders  there  to  exercise  a  stronger  personal 
influence  than  they  could  ever  have  done  had  she  been  at  her 
old  headquarters  in  Commonwealth  Avenue.  This  opportunity 
was  seized,  and  abused,  so  Mrs.  Eddy  thought,  by  one  of  her 
most  prominent  aids,  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury. 

Mrs.  Woodbury  had  been  associated  with  Mrs.  Eddy  since 
1879,  and  had  been  one  of  her  foremost  healers  and  teachers. 
She  had  written  a  great  deal  for  the  Journal,  had  preached 
and  lectured  as  far  west  as  Denver,  had  organised  classes  and 
church  societies,  and  had  conducted  a  Christian  Science  "  acad- 
emy "  at  the  Hotel  Berkshire,  in  Boston. 

Mrs.  Woodbury  was  clever,  self-confident,  given  to  theatrical 
display,  ready  with  her  tongue  and  pen,  and  she  possessed  an 
amazing  personal  influence  over  her  adherents.  In  short,  she 
was  the  only  Christian  Scientist  in  Boston  who  ever  bade  fair 
to  rival  Mrs.  Eddy  in  personal  prominence.  Like  Mrs.  Eddy, 
she  was  ambitious,  and  delighted  in  leadership.  She,  too,  could 
send  her  students  hither  and  yon,  and  keep  them  dancing 
attendance   upon  her  telegrams.      Some  of  them  lived  in   her 

428 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  429 

house  and  went  to  Maine  with  her  in  the  summer ;  they  sat 
spellbound  at  her  lectures,  and  put  their  time  and  goods  at  her 
disposal. 

Mrs.  Woodbury's  group  of  students  and  followers  were,  on 
the  whole,  very  different  from  the  simple,  rule-abiding  Christian 
Scientists  who  had  been  taught  directly  under  Mrs.  Eddy's 
personal  supervision.  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  people  never  got  very 
far  away  from  her  hard-and-fast  business  principles,  while 
Mrs.  Woodbury's  students  were  distinctly  fanciful  and  senti- 
mental, and  strove  to  add  all  manner  of  ornamentation  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  stout  homespun.  There  were  two  or  three  musi- 
cians among  them,  and  a  young  illustrator  and  his  handsome 
wife,  and  most  of  them  wrote  verses.  Some  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's 
students  went  abroad  with  her,  and  acquired  the  habit  of  inter- 
larding the  regular  Christian  Science  phraseology  with  a  little 
French.  Mrs.  Woodbury  and  her  students  lived  in  a  kind  of 
miracle-play  of  their  own ;  had  inspirations  and  revelations  and 
premonitions ;  kept  mental  trysts ;  saw  portents  and  mystic 
meanings  in  everything;  and  spoke  of  God  as  coming  and 
going,  agreeing  and  disagreeing  with  them.  Some  of  them 
affected  cell-like  sleeping-chambers,  with  white  walls,  bare  ex- 
cept for  a  picture  of  Christ.  They  longed  for  martyrdom, 
and  made  adventures  out  of  the  most  commonplace  occurrences. 
Mrs.  Woodbury  herself  had  this  marvel-loving  temperament. 
Her  room  was  lined  with  pictures  of  the  Madonna.  When  she 
went  to  Denver  to  lecture  on  Christian  Science  in  1887,  her 
train  was  caught  in  a  blizzard;  in  relating  this  experience,  she 
describes  herself  as  "  face  to  face  with  death."  Her  two 
children    fell   into  the   water   on   the  Nantasket    coast;    Mrs. 


430        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Woodbury  "  treated  "  them,  and  they  recovered.  She  writes 
upon  this  incident  a  dramatic  article  entitled  "  Drowning 
Overcome." 

Mrs.  Woodbury  and  her  students  thus  succeeded  in  giving 
to  Mrs.  Eddy's  homely  "  Science  " — pieced  together  in  dull 
New  England  shoe  towns  and  first  taught  to  people  who  worked 
with  their  hands — an  emotional  colouring  which  was  very  dis- 
tasteful to  Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  Never  was  any  woman  less  the 
religieuse.  "  Discovering  and  founding  "  Christian  Science  had 
been  her  business,  performed,  in  spite  of  all  her  flightiness,  in 
a  businesslike  manner,  and  her  success  was  eminently  a  business- 
like success.  With  yearnings  and  questings  and  raptures, 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  little  patience,  and  Mrs.  Woodbury's  romantic 
school,  with  its  spiritual  alliances,  annoyed  her  beyond  ex- 
pression. 

Meanwhile,  Mrs.  Woodbury's  students  inevitably  found  their 
miracle.  In  June,  1890,  Mrs.  Woodbury  gave  birth  to  a  son 
whom  her  followers  believed  was  the  result  of  an  "  immaculate 
conception,"  and  an  exemplification  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of 
"  mental  generation."  Mrs.  Woodbury  named  her  child  "  The 
Prince  of  Peace,"  and  baptised  him  at  Ocean  Point,  Me.,  in  a 
pool  which  she  called  "  Bethsada."  "  While  there,"  writes  Mrs. 
Woodbury,  "  occurred  the  thought  of  baptising  little  Prince 
in  a  singularly  beautiful  salt  pool,  whose  rocky  bottom  was 
dry  at  low  tide  and  ovei-flowing  at  high  tide,  but  especially 
attractive  at  mid-tide,  with  its  two  feet  of  crystal  water.  A 
crowd  of  people  had  assembled  on  the  neighbouring  bluffs,  when 
I  brought  him  from  our  cottage  not  far  away,  and  laid  him 
three  times  prayerfully  in  the  pool  and  when  he  was  lifted  there- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  431 

from,   they  joined   in    a   spontaneously   appropriate  hymn   of 
praise." 

Mrs.  Woodbury  would  not  permit  the  child,  who  was  called 
Prince  for  short,  to  address  her  husband  as  "  father,"  but 
insisted  that  he  address  Mr.  Woodbury  as  "  Frank  "  and  herself 
as  "  Birdie."  The  fact  that  he  was  a  fine,  healthy  baby,  and 
was  never  ill,  seemed  to  Mrs.  Woodbury's  disciples  conclusive 
evidence  that  he  was  the  Divine  principle  of  Christian  Science 
made  manifest  in  the  flesh.  It  was  their  pleasure  to  bring  gifts 
to  Prince ;  to  discover  in  his  behaviour  indications  of  his  spirit- 
ual nature;  and  they  professed  to  believe  that  when  he  grew 
to  manhood  he  would  enter  upon  his  Divine  ministry. 

Six  months  before  the  birth  of  Prince,  Mrs.  Woodbury  paid 
a  visit  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  seems  to  imply  that  the  venerable 
leader  oracularly  foretold  the  coming  of  her  child.  "  In  Jan- 
uary," writes  Mrs.  Woodbury,  "  I  enjoyed  a  visit  with  my  ever- 
beloved  Teacher,  who  gave  comfort  in  these  words,  though  at 
the  moment  they  were  not  received  in  their  deeper  import: 
*  Go  home  and  be  happy.  Commit  thy  ways  unto  the  Lord. 
Trust  him,  and  he  will  bring  it  to  pass.'  "  This  may  have 
suggested  to  the  faithful  the  visit  of  Mary  to  Elizabeth;  but 
if  there  was  any  miracle-play  of  this  sort  in  progress,  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  certainly  no  intention  of  playing  Elizabeth  to  Mrs. 
Woodbury's  Mary.  When  word  was  brought  her  of  the  birth 
of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  "  little  Immanuel,"  as  he  was  often  called, 
she  was  far  from  being  convinced.  "  Child  of  light !  "  she  ex- 
claimed indignantly.  "  She  knows  it  is  an  imp  of  Satan."  In 
the  libel  suit  which  Mrs.  Woodbury  later  brought  against  her 
Teacher,  a  letter  to  her  from  Mrs.  Eddy  was  read  in  court, 


F 


432        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  said :  "  Those  awful  reports  about  you, 
namely  that  your  last  child  was  illegitimate,  etc.  I  again  and 
again  tried  to  suppress  that  report ;  also  for  what  you  tried  to 
make  people  believe ;  namely,  that  that  child  was  an  immaculate 
conception,  .  .  .  and  you  replied  that  it  was  incarnated  with 
the  Devil." 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  more  vexed  with  Mrs.  Woodbury  because 
she  herself  had  undoubtedly  taught  that  in  the  future,  when 
the  world  had  attained  a  larger  growth  in  Christian  Science, 
children  would  be  conceived  by  communion  with  the  Divine  mind ; 
but  she  probably  had  no  idea  that  any  one  of  her  students, 
ambitious  to  "  demonstrate  over  material  claims,"  would  actually 
attempt  to  put  this  theory  into  practice.  She  was  wise  enough, 
moreover,  to  see  that  such  extravagant  claims  would  bring 
Christian  Science  into  disrepute,  and  she  vigorously  denounced 
Mrs.  Woodbury's  zeal. 

Besides  her  school  in  Boston,  Mrs.  Woodbury  had  a  large 
following  in  Maine,  where  she  usually  spent  the  summer.  In 
1896  Fred  D.  Chamberlain  began  a  suit  against  her  for  the 
alienation  of  his  wife's  affections — his  wife  being  a  pupil  of 
Mrs.  Woodbury's.  At  this  time,  the  Boston  Traveller,  in  dis- 
cussing Mr.  Chamberlain's  charge,  took  up  the  question  of  the 
claims  that  were  made  for  Mrs.  Woodbury's  son,  Prince.  The 
Traveller  asserted  that  some  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  students  had 
been  induced  against  their  will  to  buy  stock  in  an  "  air-engine  " 
which  Mr.  Woodbury  was  exploiting,  and  published  interviews 
with  George  Macomber  and  H.  E.  Jones,  both  of  Augusta,  Me., 
who  stated  that  their  wives  had  believed  that  Mrs.  Woodbury's 
child  was  immaculately  conceived,  had  desired  to  make  presents 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  433 

to  it,  and  had  urged  their  husbands  to  buy  stock  in  the  air- 
engine.  The  Traveller  also  made  the  statement  that  Evelyn 
I.  Rowe  of  Augusta  had  applied  for  a  divorce  from  her  husband 
upon  the  ground  of  non-support,  saying  that  he  gave  all  his 
earnings  toward  the  education  and  support  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's 
son,  Prince,  whom  Mr.  Rowe  believed  to  have  been  immaculately 
conceived.  After  the  publication  of  this,  Mrs.  Woodbury 
promptly  sued  the  Traveller  for  criminal  libel,  and  lost  her  case. 
All  this  notoriety  brouglit  matters  to  a  crisis  between  Mrs. 
Woodbury  and  Mrs.  Eddy.  Although  Mrs.  Eddy  had  found 
Mrs.  Woodbury  very  useful,  she  had  long  distrusted  her  dis- 
cretion, and  had  endeavoured  in  various  ways  to  put  a  check 
upon  her.  Mrs.  Woodbury  had  first  become  a  member  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  church  in  1886.  When  the  Mother  Church  was  re- 
organised, it  was  necessary,  in  order  that  Mrs.  Eddy  might 
cull  out  such  persons  as  were  distasteful  to  her,  for  all  the  old 
members  to  apply  for  admission  and  be  voted  upon,  just  as  were 
the  new  candidates.  Mrs.  Woodbury  was  admitted  only  upon 
the  condition  that  she  would  undergo  a  two  years'  probation, 
and  she  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  back  even  upon  those 
terms.  Several  months  before  her  admission  on  probation,  she 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  begging  her  to  use  her  personal  influence 
in  her  behalf.     To  this  petition  Mrs.  Eddy  replied: 

Mrs.  Woodbury  February  27,  1895, 

Dear  Student: 
I  have  your  letter  asking  my  assistance  in  getting  admission  to  the 
church.  I  have  made  a  rule,  which  has  been  published  in  our  Journal 
that  I  shall  not  be  consulted  on  the  applications  for  membership  to  this 
church  or  dismissals  from  it.  This  responsibility  must  rest  on  the  First 
Members  according  to  the  rules  of  the  church.  Hence  I  return  your  letter 
to  you  and  the  church. 


434        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

May  the  love  that  must  govern  j'ou  and  the  church  influence  your 
motives,  is  my  fervent  wish;  But  remember,  dear  student,  that  malicious 
hypnotism  is  no  excuse  for  sin.  But  God's  grace  is  sufficient  to  govern 
our  lives  and  lead  us  to  moral  ends. 

With  love 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 

On  April  8  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  Mrs.  Woodbury : 

Now,  dear  student  try  one  year  not  to  tell  a  single  falsehood,  or  to  practise 
one  cheat,  or  to  break  the  decalogue,  and  if  you  do  this  to  the  best  of 
your  ability  at  the  end  of  that  year  God  will  give  you  a  place  in  our 
church  as  sure  as  you  are  fit  for  it.  This  I  know.  Don't  return  evil  for 
evil,  and  you  will  have  your  reward. 

April  17  Mrs.  Eddy  again  wrote  Mrs.  Woodbury  a  warning 
letter : 

My  dear  Student:  I  am  willing  you  should  let  them  read  my  letter. 
I  forgot  to  mention  this,  hence  my  second  line  to  you.  Now  mark  what 
I  say.  This  is  your  last  chance,  and  you  will  succeed  in  getting  back,  and 
should.  But  this  I  warn  you,  to  stop  falsifying,  and  living  unpurely  in 
thought,  in  vile  schemes,  in  fraudulent  money-getting,  etc.  I  speak  plainly 
even  as  the  need  is. 

I  am  not  ignorant  of  your  sins,  and  I  am  trying  to  have  you  in  the 
church  for  protection  from  those  temptations,  and  to  effect  your  full 
reformation.  Remember,  the  M.  A.  M.,  which  you  say  in  your  letter  causes 
you  to  sin,  is  not  idle,  and  will  cause  you  to  repeat  them,  and  so  turn 
you  again  from  the  church,  unless  you  pray  God  to  keep  you  from  falling 
into  the  foul  snare.  In  the  consciousness  that  you  and  your  students 
are  mentally  speaking  to  me,  I  warn  you  this  is  forbidden  by  a  strict 
rule  of  the  by-laws  as  well  as  by  conscience. 

Mary  B.  Eddy. 

After  her  admission  to  the  Mother  Church,  Mrs.  Woodbury 
did  not  go  through  her  two  years'  probation.  Her  name  was 
dropped  from  the  church  roll  in  the  fall  of  the  first  year,  and 
in  the  following  spring  (March  24,  1896)  she  was  reinstated. 
Ten  days  later  she  was,  in  the  language  of  the  directors,  "  for- 
ever excommunicated." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  435 

What  Mrs.  Eddy  wished  was  that  Mrs.  Woodbury  should 
cease  to  identify  herself  in  any  way  with  Christian  Science. 
"  How  dare  you,"  she  wrote  to  Mrs.  Woodbury  in  the  spring 
of  1896,  "  how  dare  you  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  with  your 
character  behind  the  curtain,  and  your  students  ready  to  lift 
it  on  you,  pursue  the  path  perilous.?"  But  Mrs.  Woodbury 
was  not  made  of  such  yielding  stuff  as  the  men  who  had  afore- 
time obliterated  themselves  at  Mrs.  Eddy's  bidding.  She  in- 
sisted upon  going  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  church  even  after  the  directors 
refused  to  let  her  a  pew,  and  after  the  little  Prince  of  Peace 
had  been  taken  up  by  his  jacket  and  put  bodily  out  of  the 
Sunday-school. 

Disgruntled  Christian  Scientists  usually  went  off  and  started 
a  church  of  their  own,  and  there  were  by  this  time  almost  as 
many  "  reformed  "  varieties  of  Christian  Science  as  there  were 
dissenters.  Mrs.  Gestefeld  taught  one  kind  in  Chicago,  Mrs. 
Crosse  another  kind  in  Boston,  Frank  Mason  another  in  Brook- 
lyn, Captain  Sabin  was  soon  to  teach  another  in  Washington, 
while  nearly  all  the  students  who  had  quarrelled  with  Mrs. 
Eddy  or  broken  away  from  her  were  teaching  or  practising 
some  variety  of  mind-cure.  Mrs.  Woodbury,  accordingly,  hired 
a  hall — this  seemed  to  be  the  only  necessary  preliminary  in 
those  days — and  started  a  church  of  her  own,  to  which  her  little 
flock  followed  her.  In  the  Legion  of  Honour  rooms  she 
conducted  services  every  Sunday  morning.  Sometimes  she 
preached,  sometimes  she  lectured,  and  sometimes  she  read  a 
poem.  When  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  be  there,  her  daughter, 
Gwendolyn,  supplied  her  pulpit. 

In  1897  Mrs.  Woodbury  published  a  veiled  account  of  her 


4.36        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

differences  with  Mrs.  Eddj  in  a  pamphlet  modestly  entitled 
War  in  Heaven.  In  this  book  her  criticism  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
is  courteous  and  respectful  enough  to  suggest  that  she  may 
still  have  hoped  for  reinstatement.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  had  by  this 
time  become  convinced  that  never,  since  the  days  of  Kennedy, 
had  there  been  such  a  mesmerist  as  Mrs.  Woodbury.  Indeed, 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  alone  in  accrediting  Mrs.  Woodbury  with 
a  strange  hypnotic  power.  Some  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  own 
students  were  confident  that  if  they  displeased  her  she  had  power 
to  bring  upon  them  sickness,  insanity,  and  disaster.  They 
whispered  tales  about  Robert  W.  Rowe  of  Augusta,  Me.,  who 
had  disobeyed  and  died.  Whether  Mrs.  Eddy  really  believed 
that  the  woman  was  possessed  of  some  diabolical  power,  or 
whether  she  saw  that  Mrs.  Woodbury's  adventurous  tempera- 
ment would  bring  ridicule  upon  Christian  Science,  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  determined  to  be  rid  of  her,  and  lost  no  opportunity  to 
discredit  her.  The  two  women  had  it  back  and  forth  for  several 
years,  and  in  April,  1899,  Mrs.  Woodbury  published  in  the 
American  Register,  Paris,  a  poem  which  attacked  Christian 
Science  and  which  ended  with  these  significant  lines: 

Is  the  Dame  that  seemed  august 

A  Doll  stuffed  with  sawdust, 

And  must  we  believe  that  the  Doll  stuffed  herself? 

Mrs.  Woodbury  finally  crossed  the  Rubicon  by  publishing  in 
the  Arena,  May,  1899,  an  exposure  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
methods. 

In  this  attack  Mrs.  Woodbury  satirically  touched  upon  Mrs. 
Eddy's  con\action  that  she  is  the  star-crowned  woman  of  the 
Apocalypse,  and  then  took  up  the  Quimby  controversy,  pro- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  437 

ducing  Mrs.  Eddy's  early  letters  and  newspaper  contributions 
■  :  as  evidence  that  she  got  her  theory  of  mind-cure  from  Mr. 
Quimby.  She  criticised  the  English  of  Science  and  Health; 
ridiculed  the  Mother  Room;  Insinuated  that  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
illegally  conferred  degrees,  and  had  been  compelled  to  close 
her  college  for  that  reason ;  accused  her  of  an  Inordinate  greed 
for  money  and  of  "  trafficking  in  the  temple."  She  declared 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  a  medium,  and  that  she  was  the  victim 
of  demonophobia — the  fear  of  witchcraft.  Mrs.  Woodbury 
stated  that  Mrs.  Eddy  claimed  that  she  had  cured  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  now  King  Edward  VII.,  of  his  serious  Illness  in  1871, 
and  that  to  do  so  she  had  treated  him  through  his  royal  mother, 
as  the  Prince's  life  had  been  such  that  she  could  not  approach 
him  directly.  According  to  Mrs.  Woodbury,  Mrs.  Eddy  said 
that  she  treated  President  Garfield  after  he  was  shot,  and  would 
have  succeeded  In  saving  his  life  had  not  Kennedy  and  Arens 
maliciously  interfered  to  prevent  her  from  making  this  convinc- 
ing demonstration. 

It  seems  that  in  this  article  Mrs.  Woodbury  wished  to  explain 
how  she  had  been  led  to  make  such  extraordinary  claims  regard- 
ing the  birth  of  her  son.  Prince.  She  asserts  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
taught  her  women  students  that  they  might  become  mothers 
by  a  supreme  effort  of  their  own  minds,  and  that  girls  were 
terrified  by  the  doctrine  that  they  might  be  made  pregnant 
through  the  Influence  of  demons.  Mrs.  Woodbury  had  proba- 
bly repented  her  own  efforts  to  give  a  concrete  example  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of  "  mental  generation,"  and  she  attacks 
her  on  this  point  with  peculiar  bitterness.  She  quotes  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  Science  and  Health : 


438        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

The  propagation  of  their  species  without  the  male  element,  by  butterfly, 
bee,  and  motli  is  a  discovery  corroborative  of  the  Science  of  Mind,  because 
it  shows  that  the  origin  and  continuance  of  these  insects  rest  on  Principle, 
apart  from  material  conditions.^  An  egg  never  was  the  origin  of  a  man, 
and  no  seed  ever  produced  a  plant.  .  .  .  The  belief  that  life  can  be 
in  matter,  or  soul  in  body,  and  that  man  springs  from  dust  or  from  an 
egg,  is  the  brief  record  of  mortal  error.  .  .  .  The  plant  grows  not 
because  of  seed  or  soil. 

Commenting  upon  this  passage,  Mrs.  Woodbury  says : 

To  what  diabolical  conclusions  do  such  deductions  lead?  One  may  well 
hesitate  to  touch  this  delicate  topic  in  print,  yet  only  thus  can  the 
immoral  possibilities  and  the  utter  lack  of  Divine  inspiration  in  "  Christian 
Science "   be   shown. 

The  substance  of  certain  instructions  given  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  private 
is   as   follows: 

If  Jesus  was  divinely  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  or  Spirit,  without 
a  human  father,  Mary  not  having  known  her  husband, — then  women  may 
become  mothers  by  a  supreme  effort  of  their  own  minds,  or  through  the 
influence  upon  them  of  an  Unholy  Ghost,  a  malign  spirit.  Women  of 
unquestioned  integrity,  who  have  been  Mrs.  Eddy's  students,  testify  that 
she  has  so  taught,  and  that  by  this  teaching  families  have  been  broken 
up;  that  thus  maidens  have  been  terrified  out  of  their  wits,  and  stimulated 
into  a  frenzy  resembling  that  of  deluded  French  nuns,  who  believed  them- 
selves brought  into  marital  relations  with  the  glorified  Jesus,  as  veritably 
the  bridegroom  of  his  church.  Whatever  her  denials  may  be,  such  was 
JMrs.  Eddy's  teaching  while  in  her  college;  to  which  she  added  the  oracular 
declaration  that  it  lay  within  her  power  to  dissolve  such  motherhood  by  a 
wave  of  her  celestial  rod. 

The  selfish  celibacy  of  nuns  and  clergy,  Christian  or  heathen,  with  con- 
sequent ecclesiastical  interference  in  family  life,  have  been,  and  are,  mis- 
chief-breeding blunders,  fatal  alike  to  morals  and  health.  One  result 
of  this  interference  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Eddy  is  that  Christian  Science 
families  are  notably  childless. 

Very  tenacious  is  she  of  the  paradoxical  title  carved  on  her  Boston 
church,  "  The  Discoverer  and  Founder  of  Christian  Science."  Surely  a 
"  Discoverer "  cannot  be  the  "  Founder  "  of  that  which  he  has  been  under 
the  necessity  of  discovering;  while  a  "Founder"  would  have  no  need 
of  discovering  her  own  foundation.  What  she  has  really  "  discovered " 
are  ways  and  means  of  perverting  and  prostituting  the  science  of  healing 
to  her  own  ecclesiastical   aggrandisement,  and   to  the  moral   and  physical 

^Science  and  Health    (1886),   page  472. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  439 

depravity  of  her  dupes.     As  she  received  this  science  from  Dr.  Quimby  it 
meant  simply  the  healing  of  bodily  ills   through  a  lively   reliance  on  the 
wholeness  and  order  of  the  Infinite  Mind,  as  clearly  perceived  and  prac- 
tically  demonstrated   by   a  simple   and   modest  love   of   one's  kind.     What      ,    * 
she  has  "  founded  "  is  a  commercial  system,  monumental  in  its  proportions,      \   I 
but  already  tottering  to  its  fall. 

This  certainly  was  strong  language  from  one  who  had  taught 
Christian  Science  for  ten  years,  who  had  often  been  compared 
to  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  and  who  had  leaned  upon  the 
bosom  of  her  Teacher.  Mrs.  Woodbury's  article  appeared  the 
1st  of  May,  and  during  that  same  month  her  husband,  Frank 
Woodbury,  died.  This,  to  many  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  faithful  re- 
tainers, seemed  like  a  direct  judgment  upon  the  apostate. 

Mrs.  Woodbury  might  have  known  that  Mrs.  Eddy  would 
have  the  last  word,  and  that  it  would  be  no  gentle  one.  In 
her  annual  message  to  the  Mother  Church,  read  before  the  con- 
gregation at  the  June  communion  service,  a  few  weeks  after 
Mr.  Woodbury's  death,  Mrs.  Eddy  indulged  in  certain  vivid 
rhetoric  which  Mrs.  Woodbury  and  her  friends  believed  referred 
directly  to  Mrs.  Woodbury ;  to  her  efforts  to  get  back  into 
the  church ;  to  her  alleged  practice  of  malicious  animal  magnet- 
ism ;  and  to  her  widowhood.  The  address  was  not  only  read 
aloud  in  the  church,  but  was  published  in  the  Christian  Science 
Sentinel  and  in  the  Boston  Herald.  Mrs.  Woodbury,  accord- 
ingly, brought  a  suit  for  criminal  libel  against  Mrs.  Eddy. 

The  case  came  to  trial  in  the  following  June,  when  Boston 
was  full  of  Christian  Scientists  who  had  come  to  attend  the 
June  communion.  Mrs.  Woodbury  lost  her  suit  because  such 
Christian  Scientists  as  were  summoned  as  witnesses  testified  that 
they  had  not  understood   Mrs.   Eddy's   denunciation   to   refer 


440  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

to  Mrs.  Woodbury  in  particular.  One  of  the  witnesses,  however, 
Mr.  William  G.  Nixon,  Mrs.  Eddy's  former  publisher,  stated 
that  he  had  understood  that  Mrs.  Eddy  meant  Josephine  Wood- 
bury. 

During  the  trial  the  courtroom  was  crowded  with  Christian 
Scientists,  and  Mrs.  Woodbury  decided  that  they  had  effected 
the  outcome  of  the  suit  by  concentrating  their  minds  upon  the 
judge  and  witnesses,  and  by  "  treating  "  them  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
behalf.  She,  accordingly,  would  not  permit  an  appeal,  but 
abjured  Christian  Science  and  retired  into  private  life;  and 
with  Mrs.  Woodbury's  defeat  perished  the  romantic  movement 
in  Christian  Science. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

MRS.    EDDY    ADOPTS    THE    TITLE    OF    "  MOTHER  " BEGINNING    OF 

THE     CONCORD     PILGRIMAGES MRS.     EDDY     HINTS     AT     HEE 

POLITICAL     INFLUENCE THE     BUILDING     OF     THE     MOTHER 

CHURCH  EXTENSION 

A  Lady  with  a  Lamp  shall  stand 
In    the    great    history    of    our    land, 
A  noble  type  of  good, 
Heroic  womanhood.' 
— Motto  upon  the  cover  of  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel. 

After  the  opening  of  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston,  Chris- 
tian Science  was  generally  recognised  as  an  established  religion. 
The  church  had  now  a  general  membership  of  1,500  and  a 
substantial  house  of  worship ;  and  although  the  very  foundation 
and  fabric  of  the  church  was  a  denial  of  the  visible  and  material, 
nothing  served  to  give  it  recognition  and  standing  like  this 
actual  sign  of  its  existence.  At  the  World's  Congress  of  Re- 
ligions in  Chicago  in  1893,  Septimus  J.  Hanna,  who  was  then 
pastor  of  the  Mother  Church,  read  an  address,  composed  of 
selections  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  books,  which  attracted'  favourable 
attention,  and  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  the  founder  of  the  church,  became 

'  This  verse  Is  taken  from  Longfellow's  Filomena,  which  was  written  as  a 
tribute  to  Florence  Nightingale's  work  in  the  hospital  at  Scutari.  In  St. 
Thomas'  hospital  in  London  there  is  a  statuette  of  Florence  Nightingale  in 
nurse's  dress,  holding  in  her  hands  a  night  lamp  such  as  she  used  in  making 
her  rounds  in  Scutari.  Upon  this  statuette,  which  is  called  The  Lady  with 
the    Lamp,    is    inscribed    Longfellow's    verse. 

The  cover  design  of  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  contains  a  conventionalised 
figure  of  a  woman  holding  a  Greek  lamp.  Under  it  is  inscribed  the  motto 
quoted  above. 

441 


442        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

an  object  of  public  curiosity  and  interest.  In  1895  she  adopted 
the  title  "  Mother,"  ^  and  instituted  the  Concord  "  pilgrimages  " 
which  later  became  so  conspicuous.  By  this  time  the  church 
membership  had  so  increased  that  most  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers 
had  never  seen  their  leader,  and  as  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  attend 
the  annual  communion  ^  of  the  general  membership  in  the  Mother 
Church,  she  telegraphed  an  invitation,  after  the  June  com- 
munion in  1895,  to  the  congregation,  to  call  upon  her  at 
Pleasant  View.  Accordingly,  one  hundred  and  eighty  Christian 
Scientists  boarded  the  train  at  Boston  and  went  up  to  Concord. 
Mrs.  Eddy  threw  her  house  open  to  them,  received  them  in  per- 
son, shook  hands  with  each  delegate,  and  conversed  with  many. 

After  the  communion  in  1897,  twenty-five  hundred  enthusi- 
astic pilgrims  crowded  into  the  little  New  Hampshire  capital. 
Although  the  Scientists  hired  every  available  conveyance  in  Con- 
cord, there  were  not  enough  carriages  to  accommodate  their 
numbers,  so  hundreds  of  the  pilgrims  walked  out  Pleasant 
Street  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  home. 

Mrs.  Eddy  again  received  her  votaries,  greeted  them  cordially, 
and  made  a  long  address.     The  Journal  says  that  her  manner 

^  The  Title  of  Mother.  In  the  year  1895  loyal  Scientists  had,  given  to  the 
author  of  their  textbook,  the  Founder  of  Christian  Science,  the  individual, 
endearing  term  of  Mother.  Therefore,  if  a  student  of  Christian  Science  shall 
apply  this  title,  either  to  herself  or  to  others  except  as  the  term  for  kinship 
according  to  the  flesh,  it  shall  be  regarded  by  the  church  as  an  indication  of 
disrespect  for  their  Pastor  Emeritus,  and  unfitness  to  be  a  member  of  the 
Mother  Church. — Church   Manual.  Article  XXII.    Section   ]. 

In  190.3  Mrs.  Eddy  issued  a  new  by-law.  which  stated  that  "  owing  to  the 
public  misunderstandlns:  of  this  name'  it  is  the  duty  of  Christian  Scientists 
to  drop  the  word  mother,  and  to  substitute  T-eader.""  This  action  was  taken 
not  long  after  Mark  Twain,  in  the  North  American  Review,  had  called  at- 
tention to  the  title,  cleverly  ridiculing  it.  Mrs.  Eddy  and  other  Christian 
Scientists  replied  to  Twain's"  articles,  but  the  shaft  had  touched  a  vulnerable 
point   and   the   title   was   dropped. 

'  This  communion  was  originally  observed  once  each  quarter  and  then  twice 
a  year.  Since  1890  it  has  been  observed  but  once  a  year,  on  the  second  Sun- 
day in  June.  No  "  material "  emblems,  such  as  bread  and  wine,  are  offered, 
and  the  communion  is  one  of  silent  thought.  On  Monday  the  directors  meet 
and  transact  the  business  of  the  year,  and  on  Tuesday  the  officers'  reports  are 
read.  As  most  members  of  the"  branch  churches  are  also  members  of  the 
Mother  Church,  thousands  of  Christian  Scientists  from  all  over  the  United 
States  visit  Boston  at  this  time. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  443 

upon  this  occasion  was  peculiar  for  its  "  utter  freedom  from 
sensationalism  or  the  Mesmeric  effect  that  so  many  speakers 
seem  to  exert,"  and  adds  that  she  was  "  calm  and  unimpassioned, 
but  strong  and  convincing."  The  Journal  also  states  that 
upon  this  occasion  Mrs.  Eddy  wore  "  a  royal  purple  silk  dress 
covered  with  black  lace  "  and  a  "  dainty  bonnet."  She  wore 
her  diamond  cross  and  the  badge  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revo- 
lution in  diamonds  and  rubies. 

In  1901  *  three  thousand  of  the  June  communicants  went 
from  Boston  to  Concord  on  three  special  trains.  They  were 
not  admitted  to  the  house,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  appeared  upon  her 
balcony  for  a  moment  and  spoke  to  them,  saying  that  they  had 
already  heard  from  her  in  her  message  to  the  Mother  Church, 
and  that  she  would  pause  but  a  moment  to  look  into  their  dear 
faces  and  then  return  to  her  "  studio."  The  Journal  comments 
upon  her  "  erect  form  and  sprightly  step,"  and  says  that  she 
wore  "  what  might  have  been  silk  or  satin,  figured,  and  cut 
en  traine.  Upon  her  white  hair  rested  a  bonnet  with  fluttering 
blue  and  old  gold  trimmings." 

The  last  of  these  pilgrimages  occurred  in  1904,  when  Mrs. 
Eddy  invited  the  pilgrims  to  come,  not  to  Pleasant  View  but 
to  the  new  Christian  Science  church  in  Concord.  Fifteen  hun- 
dred of  them  gathered  in  front  of  the  church  and  stood  in 
reverent  silence  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  carriage  approached.  The 
horses  were  stopped  in  front  of  the  assemblage,  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
signalled   the   President   of   the   Mother    Church   to   approach 


*  At  the  1898  commnnion  there  was  no  invitation  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  but  a 
number  of  communicants  went  up  to  Concord  to  see  her  house  and  to  see  her 
start  out  upon  her  daily  drive.  In  June,  1890.  Mrs.  Eddy  came  to  Boston  and 
briefly  addressed  the  annual  business  meeting  of  the  church.  In  1902  and 
1903  there  were  no  formal  pilgrimages,  although  hundreds  of  Christian 
Scientists  went  to  Concord  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Mrs.  Eddy  upon  her  drive. 


4441        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

her  carriage.  To  him,  as  representing  the  church  body,  she 
spoke  her  greeting.  Her  voice  was  very  weak  and  she  had  aged 
visibly  since  her  last  official  appearance.  This  was  her  last 
meeting  with  the  general  congregation  of  her  church. 

The  yearning  which  these  people  felt  toward  Mrs.  Eddy, 
and  their  rapture  at  beholding  her,  can  only  be  described  by 
one  of  the  pilgrims.  In  the  Journal,  June,  1899,  Miss  Martha 
Sutton  Thompson  writes  to  describe  a  visit  which  she  made 
in  January  of  that  year  to  the  meeting  of  the  Christian  Science 
Board  of  Education  in  Boston.     She  says : 

When  I  decided  to  attend  I  also  hoped  to  see  our  Mother.  ...  I 
saw  that  if  I  allowed  the  thought  that  I  must  see  her  personally  to 
transcend  the  desire  to  obey  and  grow  into  the  likeness  of  her  teachings, 
this  mistake  would  obscure  my  understanding  of  both  the  Revelator  and 
the  Revelation.  After  the  members  of  the  Board  had  retired  they  re- 
appeared upon  the  rostrum  and  my  heart  beat  quickly  with  the  thought 
"  perhaps  she  has  come."  But  no,  it  was  to  read  her  message.  .  .  . 
She  said  God  was  with  us  and  to  give  her  love  to  all  the  class.  It  was  so 
precious  to  get  it  directly  from  her. 

The  following  day  five  of  us  made  the  journey  to  Concord,  drove  out 
to  Pleasant  View,  and  met  her  face  to  face  on  her  daily  drive.  She 
seemed  watching  to  greet  us,  for  when  she  caught  sight  of  our  faces 
she  instantly  half  rose  with  expectant  face,  bowing,  smiling,  and  waving 
her  hand  to  each  of  us.  Then  as  she  went  out  of  our  sight,  kissed  her 
hand  to  all. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  Leader,  nor  can  I  say  what  this 
brief  glimpse  was  and  is  to  me.  I  can  only  say  I  wept  and  the  tears 
start  every  time  I  think  of  it.  Why  do  I  weep?  I  think  it  is  because  I 
want  to  be  like  her  and  they  are  tears  of  repentance.  I  realise  better 
now  what  it  was  that  made  Mary  Magdalen  weep  when  she  came  into  the 
presence  of  the  Nazarene. 

After  the  pilgrimages  were  discouraged,  there  was  no  way 
in  which  her  devoted  disciples  could  ever  see  Mrs.  Eddy.  They 
used,  indeed,  like  Miss  Thompson,  to  go  to  Concord  and  linger 
about  the  highways  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  her  as  she  drove  by, 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  445 

until  she  rebuked  them  In  a  new  by-law  in  the  Church  Manual: 
"  Thou  Shalt  not  Steal.  Sect.  15.  Neither  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist, his  student  or  his  patient,  nor  a  member  of  the  Mother 
Church  shall  daily  and  continuously  haunt  Mrs.  Eddy's  drive 
by  meeting  her  once  or  more  every  day  when  she  goes  out — on 
penalty  of  being  disciplined  and  dealt  with  justly  by  her 
church,"  etc. 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  her  last  public  teaching  in  the  Christian 
Science  Hall  in  Concord,  November  21  and  22,  1898.  There 
were  sixty-one  persons  in  this  class, — several  from  Canada,  one 
from  England,  and  one  from  Scotland, — and  Mrs.  Eddy  refused 
to  accept  any  remuneration  for  her  instruction.  The  first  lesson 
lasted  about  two  hours,  the  second  nearly  four.  "  Only  two 
lessons,"  says  the  Journal,  "  but  such  lessons !  Only  those  who 
have  sat  under  this  wondrous  teaching  can  form  a  conjecture 
of  what  these  classes  were."  "  We  mention,"  the  Journal  con- 
tinues, "  a  sweet  incident  and  one  which  deeply  touched  the 
Mother's  heart.  Upon  her  return  from  class  she  found  beside 
her  plate  at  dinner  table  a  lovely  white  rose  with  the  card  of 
a  young  lady  student  accompanying  on  which  she  chastely  re- 
ferred to  the  last  couplet  of  the  fourth  stanza  of  that  sweet 
poem  from  the  Mother's  pen,  '  Love.' 

"  Thou  to  whose  power  our  hope  we  give 
Free   us  from  human  strife. 
Fed  by  Thy  love  divine  we  hve 
For  Love  alone  is  Life,"  etc. 

Mrs.  Eddy  now  achieved  publicity  in  a  good  many  ways, 
and  to  such  publications  as  afforded  her  space  and  appreciation 
she    was    able    to    grant    reciprocal    favours.       The    Granite 


446        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Monthly,  a  little  magazine  published  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  printed 
Mrs.  Eddy's  poem,  "  Easter  Morn,"  and  a  highly  laudatory 
article  upon  her.  Mrs.  Eddy  responded  in  the  Christian  Science 
Journal  with  a  request  that  all  Christian  Scientists  subscribe 
to  the  Granite  Monthly,  which  they  promptly  did.  Colonel 
Oliver  C.  Sabin,  a  politician  in  Washington,  D.  C,  was  editor 
of  a  purely  political  publication,  the  Washington  News  Letter. 
A  Congressman  one  day  attacked  Christian  Science  in  a  speech. 
Colonel  Sabin,  whose  paper  was  just  then  making  things  un- 
pleasant for  that  particular  Congressman,  wrote  an  editorial 
in  defence  of  Christian  Science.  Mrs.  Eddy  inserted  a  card 
in  the  Journal  requesting  all  Christian  Scientists  to  subscribe 
to  the  News  Letter.  This  brought  Colonel  Sabin  such  a  revenue 
that  he  dropped  politics  altogether  and  turned  his  political 
paper  into  a  religious  periodical.^  Mr.  James  T.  White,  pub- 
lisher of  the  National  Encyclopcedia  of  American  Biography, 
gave  Mrs.  Eddy  a  generous  place  in  his  encyclopaedia  and  wrote 
a  poem  to  her.  Mrs.  Eddy  requested,  through  the  Journal, 
that  all  Christian  Scientists  buy  Mr.  White's  volume  of  verse 
for  Christmas  presents,  and  the  Christian  Science  Publication 
Society  marketed  Mr.  White's  verses.  Mrs.  Eddy  made  a  point 
of  being  on  good  terms  with  the  Concord  papers ;  she  furnished 
them  with  many  columns  of  copy,  and  the  editors  came  to 
realise  that  her  presence  in  Concord  brought  a  great  deal  of 
money  into  the  town.  From  1898  to  1901  the  files  of  the 
Journal  echo  increasing  material  prosperity,  and  show  that 
both  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  church  were  much  more  taken  account 

"  Colonel  Sabin's  popularity  with  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  followers  was  short- 
lived. Some  months  later.  Sabin  repudiated  Mrs.  Eddy's  leadership  and  started 
an  independent  healing  movement,  and  Mrs.  Eddy"  at  once  withdrew  her 
support  and  that  of  all  Christian  Scientists. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  447 

of  than  formerly.  Articles  by  Mrs.  Eddy  are  quoted  from  vari- 
ous newspapers  whose  editors  had  requested  her  to  express  her 
views  upon  the  war  with  Spain,  the  Puritan  Thanksgiving,  etc. 

In  the  autumn  of  1901  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  an  article  on  the 
death  of  President  McKinley.  Commenting  upon  this  article, 
Harper's  Weekly  said :  "  Among  others  who  have  spoken  [on 
President  McKinley's  death]  was  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  Mother  of 
Christian  Science.  She  issued  two  utterances  which  were  read 
in  her  churches.  .  .  .  Both  of  these  discourses  are  seemly  and 
kind,  but  they  are  materially  different  from  the  writings  of 
any  one  else.  Reciting  the  praises  of  the  dead  President,  Mrs. 
Eddy  says :  '  May  his  history  Avaken  a  tone  of  truth  that  shall 
reverberate,  renew  euphony,  emphasise  human  power  and  bear 
its  banner  into  the  vast  forever.'  No  one  else  said  anything 
like  that.  Mother  Eddy's  style  is  a  personal  asset.  Her  sen- 
tences usually  have  the  considerable  literary  merit  of  being 
unexpected." 

Of  this  editorial  the  Journal  says,  with  a  candour  almost 
incredible :  "  We  take  pleasure  in  republishing  from  that  old- 
established  and  valuable  publication,  Harper's  Weekly,  the 
following  merited  tribute  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  utterances,"  etc. 
Then   follows  the  editorial  quoted  above. 

In  the  winter  of  1898  Christian  Science  received  great  pub- 
licity through  the  death,  under  Christian  Science  treatment, 
of  the  American  journalist  and  novelist,  Harold  Frederic,  in 
England.  Mr.  Frederic's  readers  were  not,  as  a  rule,  people 
who  knew  much  about  Christian  Science,  and  his  taking  off 
brought  the  new  cult  to  the  attention  of  thousands  of  people 
for  the  first  time. 


448        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

In  December,  1898,  the  Earl  of  Dunmore,  a  peer  of  the 
Scottish  Reahn,  and  his  Countess,  came  to  Boston  to  study 
Christian  Science.  They  were  received  by  Mrs.  Eddy  at  Pleas- 
ant View,  and  Lady  Dunmore  was  present  at  the  June  com- 
munion, 1899.  According  to  the  Journal,  Lady  Dunmore's 
son.  Lord  Fincastle,  left  his  regiment  in  India  and  came  to 
Boston  to  join  his  mother  in  this  service,  and  then  returned 
immediately  to  his  military  duties.  Lady  Mildred  Murray, 
daughter  of  the  Countess,  also  came  to  America  to  attend  the 
annual  communion.  A  pew  was  reserved  upon  the  first  floor 
of  the  church  for  this  titled  family,  although  the  Journal  ex- 
plains that  "  the  reservation  of  a  pew  for  the  Countess  of 
Dunmore  and  her  family  was  wholly  a  matter  of  international 
courtesy,  and  not  in  any  sense  a  tribute  to  their  rank." 

In  these  prosperous  years  the  Rev.  Irving  C.  Tomlinson,  in 
commenting  in  the  Journal  upon  Brander  Matthews'  statement 
that  English  seemed  destined  to  become  the  Avorld-language, 
says :  "  It  may  be  that  Prof.  Matthews  has  written  better  than 
he  knew.  Science  and  Health  is  fast  reaching  all  parts  of  the 
world ;  and  as  our  text-book  may  never  be  translated  into  a 
foreign  tongue,  may  it  not  be  expected  to  fulfil  the  prophet's 
hope,  '  Then  will  I  turn  to  the  people  a  pure  language,'  "  etc. 

In  January,  1901,  Mrs.  Eddy  called  her  directors  together 
and  charged  them  to  send  expressions  of  sympathy  to  the 
British  government  and  to  King  Edward  upon  the  death  of 
the  Queen. 

Truly  the  days  of  the  Lynn  shoemakers  and  the  little  Broad 
Street  tenement  were  far  gone  by,  and  it  must  have  seemed 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  that  she  was  living  in  one  of  those  New  York 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  449 

Ledger  romances  which  had  so  dehghted  her  in  those  humbler 
times.  Even  a  less  spirited  woman  than  she  would  have  ex- 
panded under  all  this  notoriety,  and  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  always, 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  play.  A  letter  written  to  her  son, 
George  Glover,  April  27,  1898,  conveys  some  idea  of  how 
Mrs.  Eddy  appeared  to  herself  at  this  time : 


Pleasakt  View,  Concord,  N.  H.,  April  27,  1898. 

Dear  Son:  Yours  of  latest  date  came  duly.  That  which  you  cannot 
write  I  understand,  and  will  say,  I  am  reported  as  dying,  wholly  decriped 
and  useless,  etc.  Now  one  of  these  reports  is  just  as  true  as  the  others 
are.  My  life  is  as  pure  as  that  of  the  angels.  God  has  lifted  me  up  to 
my  work,  and  if  it  was  not  pure  it  would  not  bring  forth  good  fruits.  The 
Bible  says  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit. 

But  I  need  not  say  this  to  a  Christian  Scientist,  who  knows  it.  I  thank 
you  for  any  interest  you  may  feel  in  your  mother.  I  am  alone  in  the 
world,  more  lone  than  a  solitary  star.  Although  it  is  duly  estimated  by 
business  characters  and  learned  scholars  that  I  lead  and  am  obeyed  by 
300,000  people  at  this  date.  The  most  distinguished  newsjiapers  ask  me  to 
write  on  the  most  important  subjects.  Lords  and  ladies,  earles,  princes 
and  marquises  and  marchionesses  from  abroad  write  to  me  in  the  most 
complimentary  manner.  Hoke  Smith  declares  I  am  the  most  illustrious 
woman  on  the  continent^ — those  are  his  exact  words.  Our  senators  and 
members  of  Congress  call  on  me  for  counsel.  But  what  of  all  this?  I 
am  not  made  the  least  proud  by  it  or  a  particle  happier  for  it.  I  am 
working  for  a  higher  purpose. 

Now  what  of  my  circumstances?  I  name  first  my  home,  which  of  all 
places  on  earth  is  the  one  in  which  to  find  peace  and  enjoyment.  But  my 
home  is  simply  a  house  and  a  beautiful  landscape.  There  is  not  one 
in  it  that  I  love  only  as  I  love  everybody.  I  have  no  congeniality  with 
my  help  inside  of  my  house;  they  are  no  companions  and  scarcely  fit  to 
be  my  help. 

I  adopted  a  son  hoping  he  would  take  Mr.  Frye's  place  as  my  book- 
keeper and  man  of  all  work  that  belongs  to  man.  But  my  trial  of  him 
has  proved  another  disappointment.  His  books  could  not  be  audited  they 
were  so  incorrect,  etc.,  etc.  Mr.  Frye  is  the  most  disagreeable  man  that 
can  be  found,  but  this  he  is,  namely  (if  there  is  one  on  earth),  an  honest 
man,  as  all  will  tell  you  who  deal  with  him.  At  first  mesmerism  swayed 
him,  but  he  learned  through  my  forbearance  to  govern  himself.  He  is  a 
man  that  would  not  steal,  commit  adultery,  or  fornication,  or  break  one 


450        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

of  the  Ten  Commandments.     I  have  now  done,  but  I  could  write  a  volume 
on  what  I  have  touched  upon. 

One  thing  is  the  severest  wound  of  all,  namely,  the  want  of  education 
among  those  nearest  to  me  in  kin.  I  would  gladly  give  every  dollar 
I  possess  to  have  one  or  two  and  three  that  are  nearest  to  me  on  earth 
possess  a  thorough  education.  If  you  had  been  educated  as  I  intend  to 
have  you,  to-day  you  could,  would,  be  made  President  of  the  United  States. 
Mary's  letters  to  me  are  so  mis-spelled  that  I  blush  to  read  them. 

You  pronounce  your  words  so  wrongly  and  then  she  spells  them  accord- 
ingly. I  am  even  yet  too  proud  to  have  you  come  among  my  society  and 
alas!  mispronounce  your  words  as  you  do;  but  for  this  thing  I  should 
be  honoured  by  your  good  manners  and  I  love  you.    With  love  to  all 

Mary   Bakek   Eddy. 

P.  S. — My  letter  is  so  short  I  add  a  postscript.  I  have  tried  about  one 
dozen  bookkeepers  and  had  to  give  them  all  up,  either  for  dishonesty, 
or  incapacity.  I  have  not  had  my  books  audited  for  five  years,  and  Mr. 
Ladd,  who  is  famous  for  this,  audited  them  last  week,  and  gives  me  his 
certificate  that  they  are  all  right  except  in  some  places  not  quite  plain,  and 
he  showed  Frye  how  to  correct  that.  Then  he,  Frye  gave  me  a  check  for 
that  amount  before  I  knew  about  it. 

The  slight  mistake  occurred  four  years  ago  and  he  could  not  remember 
about  the  things.  But  Mr.  Ladd  told  me  that  he  knew  it  was  only  not  set 
down  in  a  coherent  way  for  in  other  parts  of  the  book  he  could  trace 
where  it  was  put  down  in  all  probability,  but  not  orderly.  When  I  can 
get  a  Christian,  as  I  know  he  is,  and  a  woman  that  can  fill  his  place  I  shall 
do  it.  But  I  have  no  time  to  receive  company,  to  call  on  others,  or  to  go 
out  of  my  house  only  to  drive.  Am  always  driven  with  work  for  others, 
but  nobody  to  help  me  even  to  get  help  such  as  I  would  choose. 

Again, 

Mother. 

The  idea  of  her  own  possible  political  power  was  evidently 
rather  pleasing  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  in  a  letter  to  the  editor 
of  the  Concord  Monitor,  October  2,  1897,  she  had  already  sug- 
gested it.  "  It  would  seem,"  she  writes,  "  as  if  Christian  Sci- 
ence were  engirdling  the  earth.  London  lords  and  ladies  throng 
to  learn  its  teachings,  it  is  in  the  White  House  of  our  national 
capital,  in  Windsor  Castle,  .England,  and  the  leading  minds  in 
almost  every   Christian   land   are   adopting   its   essential   theo- 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  451 

logical  points.  ...  As  it  is,  if  you  Avere  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  mayhap  I  could  give  you  one  hundred  thousand 
votes  for  the  chair  in  Washington,  D.  C."  While  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  working  out  her  larger  policy  she  did  not  forget  the  little 
things.  The  manufacture  of  Christ'ian  Science  jewelry  was  at 
one  time  a  thriving  business,  conducted  by  the  J.  C.  Derby 
Company  of  Concord.  Christian  Science  emblems  and  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "  favourite  flower  "  were  made  up  into  cuff -buttons, 
rings,  brooches,  watches,  and  pendants,  varying  in  price  from 
$325  to  $2.50.  The  sale  of  the  Christian  Science  teaspoons 
was  especially  profitable.  The  "  Mother  spoon,"  an  ordinary 
silver  spoon,  sold  for  $5.00.  Mrs.  Eddy's  portrait  was  em- 
bossed upon  it,  a  picture  of  Pleasant  View,  Mrs.  Eddy's  signa- 
ture, and  the  motto,  "  Not  Matter  but  Mind  Satisfieth."  Mrs. 
Eddy  stimulated  the  sale  of  this  spoon  by  inserting  the  follow- 
ing request  in  the  Journal :  ^ 

On  each  of  these  most  beautiful  spoons  is  a  motto  in  bas  relief  that 
every  person  on  earth  needs  to  hold  in  thought.  Mother  requests  that 
Christian  Scientists  shall  not  ask  to  be  informed  what  this  motto  is,  but 
each  Scientist  shall  purchase  at  least  one  spoon,  and  those  who  can  afford 
it,  one  dozen  spoons,  that  their  families  may  read  this  motto  at  every 
meal,  and  their  guests  be  made  partakers  of  its  simple  truth. 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy, 

The  above-named  spoons  are  sold  by  the  Christian  Science  Souvenir 
Company,  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  will  soon  be  on  sale  at  the  Christian 
Science  reading  rooms  throughout  the  country. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  picture  was  another  fruitful  source  of  revenue. 
The  copyright  for  this  is  still  owned  by  the  Derby  Company. 
This  portrait  is  known  as  the  "  authorised  "  photograph  of  Mrs. 
Eddy.     It  was  sold  for  years  as  a  genuine  photograph  of  Mrs. 

« February,   1899. 


452  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

Eddy,  but  it  is  admitted  now  at  Christian  Science  salesrooms 
that  this  picture  is  a  "  composite."  The  cheapest  sells  for  one 
dollar.  When  they  were  ready  for  sale,  In  May,  1899,  Mrs. 
Eddy,  in  the  Journal  of  that  date,  announced : 

It  is  with  pleasure  I  certify  that  after  months  of  incessant  toil  and 
at  great  expense  Mr.  Henry  P.  Moore,  and  M^".  J.  C.  Derby  of  Concord, 
N.  H.,  have  brought  out  a  likeness  of  me  far  superior  to  the  one  they 
offered  for  sale  last  November.  The  portrait  they  have  now  perfected 
I  cordially  endorse.  Also  I  declare  their  sole  right  to  the  making  and 
exclusive  sale  of  the  duplicates  of  said  portrait. 

I  simply  ask  that  those  who  love  me  purchase  this  portrait. 

Maey  Bakeb  Eddy. 

The  material  prosperity  of  the  Mother  Church  continued  and 
the  congregation  soon  outgrew  the  original  building.  At  the 
June  communion  in  1902  ten  thousand  Christian  Scientists  were 
present.  In  the  business  meeting  which  followed  they  pledged 
themselves,  "  with  startling  grace,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  put  it,  to 
raise  two  million  dollars,  or  any  part  of  that  sum  which  should 
be  needed,  to  build  an  annex. 

In  the  late  spring  of  1906  the  enormous  addition  to  the 
Mother  Church — the  "  excelsior  extension,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  calls 
it — was  completed,  and  it  was  dedicated  at  the  annual  com- 
munion, June  10,  of  that  year.  The  original  building  was  in 
the  form  of  a  cross,  so  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the  new  addition  built 
with  a  dome  to  represent  a  crown.  The  auditorium  is  capable 
of  holding  five  thousand  people ;  the  walls  are  decorated  with 
texts  signed  "  Jesus,  the  Christ  "  and  "  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  " 
these  names  standing  side  by  side. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

GEORGE     WASHINGTON      GLOVER MRS.      EDDy's     SON     BRINGS     AN 

ACTION     AGAINST     LEADING     CHRISTIAN     SCIENTISTS WITH- 
DRAWAL   OF    THE    SUIT MRS.    EDDY    MOVES    FROM    CONCORD, 

N.    H.,   TO    NEWTON,    MASS. 

Among  the  mistakes  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  early  life  must  be 
accounted  her  indifference  to  her  only  child,  George  Washing- 
ton Glover.  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  husband  died  six  months  after 
their  marriage,  and  the  son  was  not  born  until  three  months 
after  his  father's  death.  When  he  was  a  baby,  living  with 
Mrs.  Glover  in  his  aunt's  house,  his  mother's  indifference  to 
him  was  such  as  to  cause  comment  in  her  family  and  indignation 
on  the  part  of  her  father,  Mark  Baker.  ^  The  symptoms  of 
serious  nervous  disorder  so  conspicuous  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  young 
womanhood — the  exaggerated  hysteria,  the  ansesthesia,  the 
mania  for  being  rocked  and  swung — are  sometimes  accompa- 
ned  by  a  lack  of  maternal  feeling,  and  the  absence  of  it  in  Mrs. 
?!  Eddy  must  be  considered,  like  her  lack  of  the  sense  of  smell, 
a  defect  of  constitution  rather  than  a  vice  of  character. 

After  he  went  West  with  the  Cheneys  in  1857,  George  Glover 
did  not  see  his  mother  again  until  1879.  He  was  then  living 
in  Minnesota,  a  man  of  thirty-five,  when  he  received  a  telegram 
from  Mrs.  Eddy,  dated  from  Lynn,  and  asking  him  to  meet 

*  For  a  full  account  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  s.^paration  from  her  son,  see  Chapter  II. 

453 


y 


454        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

her  immediately  in  Cincinnati.  This  was  the  time  when  Mrs. 
Eddy  believed  that  mesmerism  was  overwhelming  her  in  Lynn ; 
that  every  stranger  she  met  in  the  streets,  and  even  inanimate 
objects,  Avere  hostile  to  her,  and  that  she  must  "  flee  "  from 
the  hypnotists  (Kennedy  and  SpofFord)  to  save  her  cause  and 
her  life.  Unable  to  find  any  trace  of  his  mother  in  Cincinnati, 
George  Glover  telegraphed  to  the  Chief  of  Police  in  Lynn. 
Some  days  later  he  received  another  telegram  from  his  mother, 
directing  him  to  meet  her  in  Boston.  He  went  to  Boston,  and 
found  that  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  husband,  Asa  G.  Eddy,  had 
left  Lynn  for  a  time  and  were  staying  in  Boston  at  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Clara  Choate.  Glover  remained  in  Boston  for  some 
time  and  then  returned  to  his  home  in  the  West. 

George  Glover's  longest  stay  in  Boston  was  in  1888,  when 
he  brought  his  family  and  spent  the  winter  in  Chelsea.  His 
relations  with  his  mother  were  then  of  a  friendly  but  very 
formal  nature.  In  the  autumn,  when  he  first  proposed  going 
to  Boston,  his  plan  was  to  spend  a  few  months  with  his  mother. 
Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  wrote  him  that  she  had  no  room  for  him 
in  her  house  and  positively  forbade  him  to  come.  Mrs.  Eddy's 
letter  reads  as  follows : 

Massachusetts    Metaphysical    College. 

Rev.  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  President. 

No.  571  Columbus  ave. 
Boston,  Oct.  31,  1887 
Dear  George:    Yours  received.     I  am  surprised  that  you  think  of  coming 
to  visit  me  when  I  live  in  a  schoolhouse  and  have  no  room  that  I  can  let 
even  a  boarder  into. 

I   use  the  whole   of  my   rooms   and  am   at   work   in  them   more  or   less 
all   the   time. 

Besides  this  I  have  all  I  can  meet  without  receiving  compan}\     I  must 
have  quiet  in  my  house,  and  it  will  not  be  pleasant  for  you  in  Boston 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  455 

the  Choates  are  doing  all  they  can  by  falsehood,  and  public  shames,  such 
as  advertising  a  college  of  her  own  within  a  few  doors  of  mine  when  she 
is  a  disgraceful  woman  and  known  to  be,  I  am  going  to  give  up  my  lease 
when  this  class  is  over,  and  cannot  pay  your  board  nor  give  you  a  single 
dollar  now.  I  am  alone,  and  you  never  would  come  to  me  when  I  called 
for  you,  and  now   I  cannot  have  you  come. 

I  want  quiet  and  Christian  life  alone  with  God,  when  I  can  find  intervals 
for  a  little  rest.  You  are  not  what  I  had  hoped  to  find  you,  and  I  am 
changed.  The  world,  the  flesh  and  evil  I  am  at  war  with,  and  if  any  one 
comes  to  me  it  must  be  to  help  me  and  not  to  hinder  me  in  this  warfare. 
If  you  will  stay  away  from  me  until  I  get  through  with  my  public  labour 
then  I  will  send  for  you  and  hope  to  then  have  a  home  to  take  you  to. 

As  it  now  is,  I  have  none,  and  you  will  injure  me  by  coming  to  Boston 
at  this  time  more  than  I  have  room  to  state  in  a  letter.  I  asked  you  to 
come  to  me  when  my  husband  died  and  I  so  much  needed  some  one  to 
help  me.  You  refused  to  come  then  in  my  great  needs,  and  I  then  gave 
up  ever  thinking  of  you  in  that  line.  Now  I  have  a  clerk  ^  who  is  a  pure- 
minded  Christian,  and  two  girls  to  assist  me  in  the  college.  These  are 
all  that  I  can  have  under  this  roof. 

If  you  come  after  getting  this  letter  I  shall  feel  you  have  no  regard 
for  my  interest  or  feelings,  which  I  hope  not  to  be  obliged  to  feel. 

Boston  is  the  last  place  in  the  world  for  you  or  your  family.  When  I 
retire  from  business  and  into  private  life,  then  I  can  receive  you  if  you 
are  reformed,  but  not  otherwise.  I  say  this  to  you,  not  to  any  one  else. 
I  would  not  injure  you  any  more  than  myself.     As  ever  sincerely, 

M.   B.  G.   Eddy, 

After  Mrs.  Eddy  retired  to  Pleasant  View,  neither  her  son 

nor  his  family  were  permitted  to  visit  her,  and,  when  they  came 

East,  they  experienced  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in  seeing  her 

at  all.     Mr.  Glover  believed  that  his  letters  to  his  mother  were 

sometimes  answered  by  Mr.  Frye,  and  that  some  of  his  letters 

never  reached  his  mother  at  all.     Mr.   Glover  states  that  he 

finally  sent  his  mother  a  letter  by  express,  with  instructions 

to   the   Concord   agent   that   it  was   to  be   delivered  to  her  in 

person,  and  to  no  one  else.     He  was  notified  that  Mrs.  Eddy 

could  not  receive  the  letter  except  through  her  secretary,  Calvin 

Frye. 

*  Calvin   Frye. 


456        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

January  2,  1907,  Mr.  Glover  and  his  daughter,  Mary  Baker 
Glover,  were  permitted  to  have  a  brief  interview  with  Mrs.  Eddy 
at  Pleasant  View.  Mr.  Glover  states  that  he  was  shocked  at  his 
mother's  physical  condition  and  alarmed  by  the  rambling  in- 
coherent nature  of  her  conversation.  In  talking  to  him  she 
made  the  old  charges  and  the  old  complaints :  "  people  "  had 
been  stealing  her  "things"  (as  she  used  to  say  they  did  in 
Lynn);  people  wanted  to  kill  her;  two  carriage  horses  had 
been  presented  to  her  which,  had  she  driven  behind  them,  would 
have  run  away  and  injured  her — they  had  been  sent,  she 
thought,  for  that  especial  purpose. 

After  this  interview  Mr.  Glover  and  his  daughter  went  to 
Washington,  D.  C,  to  ask  legal  advice  from  ex-Senator  William 
E.  Chandler.  While  there  Mr.  Glover  received  the  following 
letter  from  his  mother: 

Pleasant  View,  Concord,  N.  H.,  Jan.  11,  1907. 
My  Dear  Son:  The  enemy  to  Christian  Science  is  by  the  wickedest 
powers  of  hypnotism  trying  to  do  me  all  the  harm  possible  by  acting  on 
the  minds  of  people  to  make  tliem  lie  about  me  and  my  family.  In  view 
of  all  this  I  herein  and  hereby  ask  this  favour  of  you.  I  have  done  for 
you  what  I  could,  and  never  to  my  recollection  have  I  asked  but  once 
before  this  a  favour  of  my  only  child.  Will  you  send  to  me  by  express 
all  the  letters  of  mine  that  I  have  written  to  you?  This  will  be  a  great 
comfort  to  your  mother  if  you  do  it.  Send  all — all  of  them.  Be  sure  of 
that.  If  you  will  do  this  for  me  I  will  make  you  and  Mary  some  presents 
of  value,  I  assure  you.  Let  no  one  but  Mary  and  your  lawyer,  Mr.  Wilson, 
know  what  I  herein  write  to  Mary  and  you.    With  love. 

Mother,  M.  B.  G.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Glover  refused  to  give  up  his  letters,  and  on  March  1, 
1907,  he  began,  by  himself  and  others  as  next  friends,  an  action 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  behalf  against  ten  prominent  Christian  Scien- 
tists, among  whom  were  Calvin  Frye,  Alfred  Farlow,  and  the 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  457 

officers  of  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston.  This  action  was 
brought  in  the  Superior  Court  of  New  Hampshire.  Mr.  Glover 
asked  for  an  adjudication  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  incompetent, 
through  age  and  f aiHng  faculties,  to  manage  her  estate ;  that 
a  receiver  of  her  property  be  appointed;  and  that  the  various 
defendants  named  be  required  to  account  for  alleged  misuse 
of  her  property.  Six  days  later  Mrs.  Eddy  met  this  action 
by  declaring  a  trusteeship  for  the  control  of  her  estate.  The 
trustees  named  were  responsible  men,  gave  bond  for  $500,000, 
and  their  trusteeship  was  to  last  during  Mrs.  Eddy's  lifetime. 
In  August  Mr.  Glover  withdrew  his  suit. 

This  action  brought  by  her  son,  which  undoubtedly  caused 
Mrs.  Eddy  a  great  deal  of  annoyance,  was  another  result  of 
those  indirect  methods  to  which  she  has  always  clung  so  per- 
sistently. When  her  son  appealed  to  her  for  financial  aid,  she 
chose,  instead  of  meeting  him  with  a  candid  refusal,  to  tell 
him  that  she  was  not  allowed  to  use  her  own  money  as  she 
wished,  that  Mr.  Frye  made  her  account  for  every  penny,  etc., 
etc.  Mr.  Glover  made  the  mistake  of  taking  his  mother  at 
her  word.  He  brought  his  suit  upon  the  supposition  that  his 
mother  was  the  victim  of  designing  persons  who  controlled  her 
affairs — without  consulting  her,  against  her  wish,  and  to  their 
own  advantage — a  hypothesis  which  his  attorneys  entirely  failed 
to  establish. 

This  lawsuit  disclosed  one  interesting  fact,  namely,  that 
while  in  1893  securities  of  Mrs.  Eddy  amounting  to  $100,000 
were  brought  to  Concord,  and  in  January,  1899,  she  had  $236,- 
200,  and  while  in  1907  she  had  about  a  million  dollars'  worth 
of  taxable  property,  Mrs.   Eddy  in   1901    returned   a  signed 


458         LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

statement  to  the  assessors  at  Concord  that  the  value  of  her 
taxable  property  amounted  to  about  $19,000.  This  statement 
was  sworn  to  year  after  year  by  Mr.  Frye. 

About  a  month  after  Mr.  Glover's  suit  was  withdrawn,  Mrs. 
Eddy  purchased,  through  Robert  Walker,  a  Christian  Scientist 
real-estate  agent  in  Chicago,  the  old  Lawrence  mansion  in 
Newton,  a  suburb  of  Boston.  The  house  was  remodelled  and 
enlarged  in  great  haste  and  at  a  cost  which  must  almost  have 
equalled  the  original  purchase  price,  $100,000.  All  the 
arrangements  were  conducted  with  secrecy,  and  very  few  Chris- 
tian Scientists  knew  that  it  was  Mrs.  Eddy's  intention  to  occupy 
this  house  until  she  was  there  in  person. 

On  Sunday,  January  26,  1908,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, Mrs.  Eddy,  attended  by  nearly  a  score  of  her  followers, 
boarded  a  special  train  at  Concord.  Extraordinary  precau- 
tions were  taken  to  prevent  accidents.  A  pilot-engine  pre- 
ceded the  locomotive  which  drew  Mrs.  Eddy's  special  train, 
and  the  train  was  followed  by  a  third  engine  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  a  rear-end  collision.  Dr.  Alpheus  B.  Morrill,  a 
second  cousin  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  a  practising  physician  of 
Concord,  was  of  her  party.  Mrs.  Eddy's  face  was  heavily 
veiled  when  she  took  the  train  at  Concord  and  when  she  alighted 
at  Chestnut  Hill  station.  Her  carriage  arrived  at  the  Law- 
rence house  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  she  was  lifted  out  and 
carried  into. the  house  by  one  of  her  male  attendants. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  new  residence  is  a  fine  old  stone  mansion  which 
has  been  enlarged  without  injury  to  its  original  dignity.  The 
grounds  cover  an  area  of  about  twelve  acres  and  are  well 
wooded.     The   house    now    contains    about    twenty-five    rooms. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  459 

There  is  an  electric  elevator  adjoining  Mrs.  Eddy's  private 
apartments  and  two  large  vaults  have  been  built  into  the  house. 
Since  her  arrival  at  Chestnut  Hill,  Mrs.  Eddy,  upon  one  of 
her  daily  drives,  saw  for  the  first  time  the  new  building  which 
completes  the  Mother  Church  and  which,  like  the  original  mod- 
est structure,  is  a  memorial  to  her. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  Mrs.  Eddy  may  have  decided 
to  leave  Concord.  But  the  extreme  haste  with  which  her  new 
residence  was  got  ready  for  her — a  body  of  several  hundred 
labourers  was  kept  busy  upon  it  all  day,  and  another  shift, 
equally  large,  worked  all  night  by  the  aid  of  arc-lights — sug- 
gests that,  even  if  practical  considerations  brought  about  Mrs. 
Eddy's  change  of  residence,  her  extreme  impatience  may  have 
resulted  from  a  more  personal  motive.  It  is  very  probable  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  left  Concord  for  the  same  reason  that  she  left 
Boston  years  ago :  because  she  felt  that  malicious  animal  mag- 
netism was  becoming  too  strong  for  her  there.  The  action 
brought  by  her  son  in  Concord  the  previous  summer  she  attrib- 
uted entirely  to  the  work  of  mesmerists  who  were  supposed  to 
be  in  control  of  her  son's  mind.  Mrs.  Eddy  always  believed  that 
this  strange  miasma  of  evil  had  a  curious  tendency  to  become 
localised:  that  certain  streets,  mail-boxes,  telegraph-offices, 
vehicles,  could  be  totally  suborned  by  these  invisible  currents 
of  hatred  and  ill-will  that  had  their  source  in  the  minds  of  her 
enemies  and  continually  encircled  her.  She  believed  that  in  this 
way  an  entire  neighbourhood  could  be  made  inimical  to  her, 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that,  after  the  recent  litigation  in  Con- 
cord, she  felt  that  the  place  had  become  saturated  with  mesmer- 
ism and  that  she  would  never  again  find  peace  there. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

TRAINING     THE     VINE HOW     MRS.     EDDY     HAS     ORGANISED     HER 

CHURCH  HER       MANAGEMENT       AND       DISCIPLINE THE 

CHURCH     MANUAL RECENT     MODIFICATIONS     IN     CHRISTIAN 

SCIENCE    PRACTICE MEMBERSHIP    OF    THE    CHURCH PRAC- 
TICAL,   RESULTS    OF    MRS.    EDDy's    LIFE-WORK 

The  years  since  1892  Mrs.  Eddy  has  spent  in  training  her 
church  in  the  way  she  desires  it  to  go,  in  making  it  mere  and 
more  her  own,  and  in  issuing  by-law  after  by-law  to  restrict 
her  followers  in  their  church  privileges  and  to  guide  them  in 
their  daily  walk.  Mrs.  Eddy,  one  must  remember,  was  fifty 
years  of  age  before  she  knew  what  she  wanted  to  do;  sixty 
when  she  bethought  herself  of  the  most  effective  way  to  do  it, — 
by  founding  a  church, — and  seventy  when  she  achieved  her 
greatest  triumph — the  reorganisation  and  personal  control  of 
the  Mother  Church.  But  she  did  not  stop  there.  Between  her 
seventieth  and  eightieth  year,  and  even  up  to  the  present  time, 
she  has  displayed  remarkable  ingenuity  in  disciplining  her 
church  and  its  leaders,  and  resourcefulness  and  energy  in  the 
prosecution  of  her  plans. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  system  of  church  government  was  not  devised 
in  a  month  or  a  year,  but  grew,  by-law  on  by-law,  to  meet 
new  emergencies  and  situations.  To  attain  the  end  she  desired 
it  was  necessary  to  keep  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  people  working 

460 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  461 

as  if  the  church  were  the  first  object  in  their  lives ;  to  encourage 
hundreds  of  these  to  adopt  church-work  as  their  profession 
and  make  it  their  only  chance  of  worldly  success ;  and  yet  to 
hold  all  this  devotion  and  energy  in  subservience  to  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  and  to  prevent  any  one  of  these  healers,  or  preachers, 
or  teachers  from  attaining  any  marked  personal  prominence  and 
from  acquiring  a  personal  following.  The  church  was  to  have 
all  the  vigour  of  spontaneous  growth,  but  was  to  grow  only  as 
Mrs.  Eddy  permitted  and  to  confine  itself  to  the  trellis  she 
had  built  for  it. 

Naturally,  the  first  danger  lay  in  the  pastors  of  her  branch 
churches.  Mrs.  Stetson  and  Mrs.  Laura  Lathrop  had  built 
up  strong  churches  in  New  York;  Mrs.  Ewing  was  pastor  of 
a  flourishing  church  in  Chicago ;  Mrs.  Leonard  of  another  in 
Brooklyn ;  Mrs.  Williams  in  Buffalo ;  Mrs.  Steward  in  Toronto ; 
Mr.  Norcross  in  Denver.  These  pastors  naturally  became 
leaders  among  the  Christian  Scientists  in  their  respective  com- 
munities, and  came  to  be  regarded  as  persons  authorised  to 
expound  Science  and  Health  and  the  doctrines  of  Christian 
Science.  Such  a  state  of  things  Mrs.  Eddy  considered  danger- 
ous, not  only  because  of  the  personal  influence  the  pastor  might 
acquire  over  his  flock,  but  because  a  pastor  might,  even  without 
intending  to  do  so,  give  a  personal  colour  to  his  interpretation 
of  her  words.  In  his  sermon  he  might  expand  her  texts  and 
improvise  upon  her  themes  until  gradually  his  hearers  would 
come  to  accept  his  own  opinions  for  Mrs.  Eddy's.  The  church 
in  Toronto  might  come  to  emphasise  doctrines  which  the  church 
in  Denver  did  not;  here  was  a  possible  beginning  of  diff'ering 
denominations. 


462        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

So,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  splendidly  puts  it,  "  In  1895  I  ordained 
the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures, 
as  the  Pastor,  on  this  planet,  of  all  the  churches  of  the  Chris- 
tian Science  Denomination."  In  the  Journal  of  April,  1895, 
she  announced,  without  previous  warning,  that  there  were  to  be 
no  more  preachers ;  that  each  church  should  have,  instead,  a 
First  and  a  Second  Reader,  and  that  the  Sunday  sermon  was 
to  consist  of  extracts  from  the  Bible  and  from  Science  and 
Health,  read  to  the  congregation.  In  the  beginning  the  First 
Reader  read  from  the  Bible  and  the  Second  Reader  from  Mrs. 
Eddy's  book.  But  this  Mrs.  Eddy  soon  changed.  The  First 
Reader  now  reads  from  Science  and  Health,  and  the  Second 
reads  those  passages  of  the  Bible  which  Mrs.  Eddy  selects  as 
correlative.  This  service,  Mrs.  Eddy  declares,  was  "  authorised 
by  Christ."  ' 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  issued  this  injunction,  every  Christian 
Science  preacher  promptly  and  silently  obeyed  it.  Many  of 
them  kissed  the  rod.  L.  P.  Norcross,  one  of  the  deposed  pastors, 
wrote  humbly  in  the  August  Journal: 

Did  any  one  expect  such  a  revelation,  such  a  new  departure  would  be 

given?     No,  not  in  the  way  it  came A   former  pastor   of  the 

Mother  Church  once  remarked  that  the  day  would  dawn  when  the  current 
methods  of  preaching  and  worship  would  disappear,  but  he  could  not 
discern  how.  .  .  .  Such  disclosures  are  too  high  for  us  to  perceive. 
To  One  alone  did  the  message  come. 

Mrs.  Eddy  had  no  grudge  against  her  pastors,  and  many  of 


^  In  a  notice  to  the  churches,  1897,  Mrs.  Eddy  says : 

"  The  Bible  and  the  Christian  Science  text-book  are  our  only  preachers.  We 
shall  now  read  scriptural  texts  and  their  co-relative  passages  from  our  text- 
book— these  comprise  our  sermon.  The  canonical  writings,  together  with 
the  word  of  our  text-book,  corroborating  nnd  explaining  the  Bible  texts  In  their 
denominational,  spiritual  import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past,  present,  and 
future,  constitute  a  sermon  undivorcod  from  truth,  uncontaminated  or  fettered 
by   human   hypotheses  and  ;.uthorised  by   Christ." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  463 

them  were  made  Readers  in  the  churches  which  thej  had  built 
and  in  which  thej  had  formerly  preached. 

The  "  Reader "  is  well  hedged  in  with  by-laws  and  his 
duties  and  limitations  are  clearly  defined: 

He  is  to  read  parts  of  Science  and  Health  aloud  at  every 
service. 

He  cannot  read  from  a  manuscript  or  from  a  transcribed 
copy,  but  must  read  from  the  book  itself. 

He  is,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  to  be  "  well  read  and  well  educated," 
but  he  shall  at  no  time  make  any  remarks  explanatory  of  the 
passages  which  he  reads. 

Before  commencing  to  read  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  "  he 
shall  distinctly  announce  its  full  title  and  give  the  author's 
name." 

A  Reader  must  not  be  a  leader  in  the  church.  Besides  these 
restrictions  there  is  a  by-law  which  provides  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
can,  without  explanation,  remove  any  reader  at  any  time  that 
she  sees  fit  to  do  so." 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Journal  in  which  she  dismissed 
her  pastors  and  substituted  Readers,  Mrs.  Eddy  stated,  in 
an  open  letter,  that  her  students  would  find  in  that  issue  "  the 
completion,  as  I  now  think,  of  the  Divine  directions  sent  out 
to  the  churches."  But  it  was  not  the  completion.  By  the 
summer  of  1902  Septimus  J.  Hanna,  First  Reader  of  the  Mother 
Church  in  Boston,  had  become,  without  the  liberty  to  preach 
or  to  "  make  remarks,"  so  influential  that  Mrs.  Eddy  made  a 
new  ruling  that  the  Reader's  term  of  office  should  be  limited 


2  For  the  text  of  these  by-laws  see  Christian  Science  Manual  (1904),  Articles 
IV  and  XXIII. 


464        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

to  three  years,^  and,  Mr.  Hanna's  term  then  being  up,  he  was 
put  into  the  lecture  field.  The  highest  dignity,  then,  that  any 
Christian  Scientist  could  hope  for  was  to  be  chosen  as  Reader 
for  three  years  at  a  comfortable  salary. 

Why,  it  has  often  been  asked,  did  the  more  influential  pastors 
• — people  with  a  large  personal  following,  like  Mrs.  Stetson — 
consent  to  resign  their  pulpits  in  the  first  place  and  afterward 
to  be  stripped  of  privilege  after  privilege?  Some  of  them,  of 
course,  submitted  because  they  believed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  pos- 
sessed "  Divine  Wisdom  " ;  others  because  they  remembered  what 
had  happened  to  dissenters  before  them.  Of  all  those  who  had 
broken  away  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  authority,  not  one  had  attained 
to  anything  like  her  success  or  material  prosperity,  while  many 
had  followed  wandering  fires  and  had  come  to  nothing.  Chris- 
tian Science  leaders  had  staked  their  fortunes  upon  the  hypothe- 
sis that  Mrs.  Eddy  possessed  "  divine  wisdom  " ;  it  was  as  ex- 
pounders of  this  Avisdom  that  they  had  obtained  their  influence 
and  built  up  their  churches.  To  rebel  against  the  authority 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  wisdom  would  be  to  discredit  themselves ;  to 
discredit  Mrs.  Eddy's  wisdom  would  have  been  to  destroy  their 
whole  foundation.  To  claim  an  understanding  and  an  inspira- 
tion equal  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  would  have  been  to  cheapen  and 
invalidate  everytliing  that  gave  Christian  Science  an  advantage 
over  other  religions.  Had  they  once  denied  the  Revelation 
and  the  Revelator  upon  which  their  church  was  founded,  the 
whole  structure  would  have  fallen  in  upon  them.    If  Mrs.  Eddy's 


'  Mrs.  Eddy  stated  In  regard  to  this  ruling  that  it  was  to  have  immediate 
effect  only  in  the  Mother  Church,  adding :  "  Doubtless  the  churches  adopting 
this  by-law  will  discriminate  its  adaptability  to  their  conditions.  But  if  now 
Is  not  the  time  the  branch  churches  can  wait  for  the  favoured  moment  to  act 
on  this  subject." 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  465 

intelligence  v/ere  not  divine  in  one  case,  wlio  would  be  able  to 
say  that  it  was  in  another?  If  they  could  not  accept  Mrs. 
Eddy's  wisdom  when  she  said  "  there  shall  be  no  pastors,"  how 
could  they  persuade  other  people  to  accept  it  when  she  said 
"  there  is  no  matter  "  ?  It  was  clear,  even  to  those  who  writhed 
under  the  restrictions  imposed  upon  them,  that  they  must  stand 
or  fall  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  Wisdom,  and  that  to  disobey  it  was 
to  compromise  their  own  careers.  Even  in  the  matter  of  get- 
ting on  in  the  world,  it  was  better  to  be  a  doorkeeper  in 
the  Mother  Church  than  to  dwell  in  the  tents  of  the  "  mental 
healers.  " 

Probably  it  was  harder  for  Mrs.  Stetson  to  retire  from 
the  pastorship  than  for  any  one  else.  Mrs.  Stetson  had  gone 
to  New  York  when  Christian  Science  was  practically  unknown 
there,  and  from  poor  and  small  beginnings  had  built  up  a  rich 
and  powerful  church.  But,  when  the  command  came,  she 
stepped  out  of  the  pulpit  she  had  built.  She  is  to-day  probably 
the  most  influential  person,  after  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  the  Christian 
Science  body.  In  1907  the  New  York  World  published  several 
interviews  with  persons  who  asserted  that  they  believed  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  be  controlled  by  a  clique  of  Christian  Scientists  Vvho 
were  acting  for  Mrs.  Stetson's  interests.  In  June  Mrs.  Stetson 
wrote  Mrs.  Eddy  a  letter  which  was  printed  in  the  Christian 
Science  Sentinel  and  which  read  in  part : 

BosTox,  Mass.,  June  9,  1907. 
My  Precious  Leader:— I  am  glad  I  know  that  I  am  in  the  hands  of 
God,  not  of  men.  These  reports  are  only  the  revival  of  a  lie  which  I  have 
not  heard  for  a  long  time.  It  is  a  renewed  attack  upon  me  and  my  loyal 
students,  to  turn  me  from  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Christ  by  making 
another  attempt  to  dishearten  me  and  make  me  weary  of  the  struggle  to 
demonstrate  my  trust  in  God  to   deliver  me   from  the  "  accuser  of  our 


4<66        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

brethren."     It   is   a   diabolical   attempt   to   separate   me   from  you,   as   my 
Leader  and   Teacher.     .     .     . 

Oh,  Dearest,  it  is  such  a  lie !  No  one  who  knows  us  can  believe  this. 
It  is  vicarious  atonement.  Has  the  enemy  no  more  argument  to  use,  that 
it  has  to  go  back  to  this?  It  is  exhausting  its  resources  and  I  hope  the 
end  is  near.  You  know  my  love  for  you,  beloved;  and  my  students  love 
you  as  their  Leader  and  Teacher;  they  follow  your  teachings  and  lean  on 
the  "  sustaining  infinite."  They  who  refuse  to  accept  you  as  God's  mes- 
senger, or  ignore  the  message  which  you  bring,  will  not  get  up  by  some 
other  way,  but  will  come  short  of  salvation.     .     .     . 

Dearly  beloved,  we  are  not  ascending  out  of  sense  as  fast  as  we  desire, 
but  we  are  trusting  in  God  to  put  off  the  false  and  put  on  the  Christ, 
This  lie  cannot  disturb  you  nor  me.  I  love  you  and  my  students  love  you, 
and  we  never  touch  you  with  such  a  thought  as  is  mentioned. 

Lovingly  your  child, 

Augusta  E.  Stetson. 

But  Mrs.  Stetson's  protestations  of  loyalty  availed  her  noth- 
ing. She  was  more  than  ever  kept  under  surveillance  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  directors,  and  when  at  last,  in  December,  1908,  it  be- 
came known  that  Mrs.  Stetson  had  formed  elaborate  plans  to 
extend  her  church  system  in  New  York,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  acutely 
alarmed.  Mrs.  Stetson,  with  her  church  behind  her,  had,  with- 
out consulting  Mrs.  Eddy  it  would  seem,  completed  her  plans  for 
building  a  magnificent  new  church  on  Riverside  Drive,  New 
York.  This  church,  so  it  was  announced,  was  to  "  rival  in 
beauty  of  architecture  any  other  religious  structure  in  Amer- 
ica," and  it  was  to  be  built  by  Mrs.  Stetson,  and  managed  by 
her  and  an  advisory  board.  Although  Mrs.  Stetson  explained 
that  the  proposed  new  church  would  be  organised  regularly 
a;  a  branch  of  the  Mother  Church  in  Boston  and  in  accordance 
with  the  regulations  laid  down  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the  Church 
Manual,  it  was  evident  that  Mrs.  Eddy  regarded  the  plan  as 
a  scheme  of  Mrs.  Stetson's  to  rival  the  great  Boston  temple  and 
to  build  up  a  church  system  of  her  own. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  467 

Mrs.  Eddj  lost  not  a  moment  in  condemning  the  project. 
Her  daily  newspaper,  the  Christian  Science  Monitor  of  Boston, 
and  her  church  organ,  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  which 
reach  the  entire  Christian  Science  membership,  announced  edi- 
torially that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  pleased  "  with  what  purport 
to  be  plans  of  First  Church  of  Christ  Scientist  of  New  York 
City,  for  she  learned  of  this  proposed  rival  to  the  Mother 
Church  for  the  first  time,  from  the  daily  press."  "  Three  lead- 
ing facts,"  continued  the  editorial,  "  remain  immortal  in  the 
history  of  Christian  Science,  namely: 


1.  This  Science  is  already  established,  and  it  has  the  support  of  all 
true  Christian  Scientists  throughout  the  world. 

2.  Any  competition  or  any  rivalry  in  Christian  Science  is  abnormal,  and 
will  expose  and  explode  itself. 

3.  Any  attempt  at  rivalry  or  superiority  in  Christian  Science  is  un- 
christian; therefore  it  is  unscientific.  The  great  Teacher  said:  "  As  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye." 

Thoughtful  Christian  Scientists  are  profoundly  grateful  to  their  beloved 
Leader,  Mrs.  Eddy,  because  in  her  far-seeing  wisdom  she  has  ordained 
The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  Mass.,  already  famous 
for  originating  reforms,  as  The  Mother  Church  of  Christian  Science,  and 
all  other  churches  in  the  denomination  as  branches  of  the  parent  Vine. 
Says  the  Church  Manual:  "  In  its  relation  to  other  Christian  Science 
churches,  in  its  by-laws  and  self-government.  The  Mother  Church  stands 
alone;  it  occupies  a  postion  that  no  other  church  can  fill"  (Art.  xxiii.. 
Sec.  3).  It  is  a  fact  of  general  observation  that  in  proportion  as  branch 
churches  adhere  loyally  to  The  Mother  Church,  and  obey  implicitly  its 
by-laws,  they  bear  abundant  fruit  in  healing  the  sick  and  sinful. 


Machinery  was  set  in  motion  at  headquarters  to  restrain  and 
repress  Mrs.  Stetson's  activities.  In  the  summer  of  1909  a 
new  by-law  was  issued.  It  provided  that  teachers  and  practi- 
tioners could  no  longer  maintain  offices  or  rooms  in  the  churches, 
in  the  reading-rooms,  or  in  rooms  connected  therewith.     It  was 


468        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

known  by  those  who  understood  the  situation  that  this  ruling 
was  aimed  directly  at  Mrs.  Stetson.  With  other  healers  of  her 
congregation  she  had  maintained  handsome  offices  in  the  First 
Church  in  New  York,  where  she  healed  patients,  instructed 
classes  and  individuals,  and  daily  met  her  friends  and  co-workers. 
Mrs.  Stetson  obeyed  this  by-law.  She  merely  retreated  to  her 
house,  wliich  adjoins  her  church  and  is  connected  with  it  by  a 
covered  passage,  and  conducted  her  work  as  before. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  was  not  to  be  thus  easily  defeated. 
She  was  determined  that  Mrs.  Stetson,  whom  she  considered  as 
an  open  rival,  should  be  removed  as  such,  and  that  her  circle 
should  be  broken  up.  During  the  summer  and  early  autumn 
of  1909  Mrs.  Stetson  was  brought  before  the  Mother  Church 
directors  in  Boston  and  closely  questioned,  and  many  of  her 
students  were  also  examined  before  this  court-martial.  It  was 
decided  that  Mrs.  Stetson  must  be  disciplined,  and  she  was 
officially  deprived  of  her  rank  as  a  healer  and  as  a  teacher. 
She  was  forbidden  to  teach  or  practise  Christian  Science  until 
she  had  proved  her  fitness  for  such  work.  She  was,  therefore, 
placed  on  a  three  years'  probation,  at  the  conclusion  of  which, 
if  her  conduct  has  been  exemplary  and  if  she  has  met  Mrs. 
Eddy's  requirements  as  to  loyalty,  she  may,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  sees 
fit,  again  be  permitted  to  teach  and  practise.  The  reasons 
given  by  the  directors  for  reducing  Mrs.  Stetson  were :  erroneous 
teaching  of  Christian  Science ;  the  exercise  of  undue  influence 
over  her  students,  which  tended  to  hinder  their  moral  and  spirit- 
ual growth;  turning  the  attention  of  her  students  to  herself 
and  away  from  Divine  principle ;  teaching  and  practising  con- 
trary to  Science  and  Health;  and  finally,  that  "  Mrs.  Stetson 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  469 

attempts  to  control  and  to  injure  persons  by  mental  means, 
this  being  utterly  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  Christian 
Science." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  in  dealing  with  the  case  of  Mrs. 
Stetson,  Mrs.  Eddy  once  again  resorted  to  the  faithful  weapon 
which  had  never  failed  her  in  all  her  executions  of  the  past — 
the  time-worn  charge  of  mental  malpractice. 

Her  pastors  ha\ing  been  satisfactorily  dealt  with,  the  next 
danger  Mrs.  Eddy  saw  lay  in  her  teachers  and  "  academies." 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  found,  of  course,  that  a  great  many  Christian 
Scientists  wished  to  make  their  living  out  of  their  new  religion ; 
that  possibility,  indeed,  was  one  of  the  most  effective  advantages 
which  Christian  Science  had  to  offer  over  other  religions.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  church,  while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  still  in- 
structing classes  in  Christian  Science  at  her  "  college,"  teach- 
ing was  a  much  more  remunerative  business  than  healing.  Mrs. 
Eddy  charged  each  student  $300  for  a  primary  course  of  seven 
lessons,  and  the  various  Christian  Science  "  institutes  "  and 
"  academies  "  about  the  country  charged  from  $100  to  $200 
per  student.  So  long  as  Mrs.  Eddy  was  herself  teaching  and 
never  took  patients,  she  could  not  well  forbid  other  teachers 
to  do  likewise.  But  after  she  retired  to  Concord,  she  took 
the  teachers  in  hand.  Mrs.  Eddy  knew  that  Christian  Science 
was  propagated  and  that  converts  were  made,  not  through  doc- 
trine, but  through  cures.  She  had  found  that  out  in  the  be- 
ginning, when  Richard  Kennedy's  cures  brought  her  her  first 
success.  She  knew,  too,  that  teaching  Christian  Science  was  a 
much  easier  profession  than  healing  by  it,  and  that  the  teacher 
risked  no  encounter  with  the   law.     Since  teaching  was   both 


470        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

easier  and  more  remunerative  it  would  be  natural  for  teachers 
to  multiply  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  healers,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  dis- 
couraged this  by  cutting  down  the  teacher's  fee,  and  limiting 
the  number  of  pupils  which  one  teacher  might  instruct  in  a  year. 
By  1904  Mrs.  Eddy  had  got  the  teacher's  fee  down  to  fifty 
dollars  per  student,  and  a  teacher  was  not  permitted  to  teach 
more  than  thirty  students  a  year.  From  1903  to  1906  all 
teaching  was  suspended  under  the  by-law  "  Healing  better  than 
teaching." 

In  the  fall  of  1895  Mrs.  Eddy  issued  her  instructions  to  the 
churches  in  the  form  of  a  volume  entitled  the  Church  Manual 
of  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  Mass.  The 
by-laws  herein  contained,  she  says,  "  were  impelled  by  a  power 
not  one's  own,  were  written  at  different  dates,  as  occasion  re- 
quired." This  book  is  among  Mrs.  Eddy's  copyrighted  works, 
and  has  now  been  through  more  than  forty  editions.  Some 
of  the  by-laws  in  the  earlier  editions  are  perplexing. 

We  find  that  "  Careless  comparison  or  irreverent  reference 
to  Christ  Jesus,  is  abnormal  in  a  Christian  Scientist  and  pro- 
hibited." *  It  is  probable  that  no  Christian  church  had  ever 
before  found  it  necessary  to  make  such  a  prohibition. 

The  Manual,  however,  is  chiefly  interesting  as  an  exposition 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  method  of  church  government  and  as  an  in- 
ventory of  her  personal  prerogatives.  Never  was  a  title  more 
misleadingly  modest  than  Mrs.  Eddy's  title  of  "  Pastor  Emer- 
itus "  of  the  Mother  Church. 

Next  to  Mrs.  Eddy  in  authority  is  the  Board  of  Directors, 
who  were  chosen  by  Mrs.  Eddy  and  who  are  subject  to  her  in 
*  Church  Manual    (11th  ed.).   Article  XXXII. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  471 

all  their  official  acts.  Any  one  of  these  directors  can  at  any 
time  be  dismissed  upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  request,  and  the  vacancy 
can  be  filled  only  by  a  candidate  whom  she  has  approved.  All 
the  church  business  is  transacted  by  these  directors, — no  other 
members  of  the  church  may  be  present  at  the  business  meetings, 
— and  at  any  time  Mrs.  Eddy's  request  will  remove  them.  The 
members  of  this  board  are  pledged  to  secrecy ;  they  "  shall 
neither  report  the  discussions  of  this  Board,  nor  those  with 
Mrs.  Eddy."  ' 

These  directors  are  Mrs.  Eddy's  executive  self,  created  by 
her  and  committed  to  silence.  Their  chief  duties  are  to  elect 
to  office  whomsoever  Mrs.  Eddy  appoints,  and  to  hold  their 
peace. 

The  President  of  the  church  is  annually  elected  by  the 
directors,  the  election  being  subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval.® 

The  First  and  Second  Readers  arc  elected  every  third  year 
by  the  directors,  subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval,  but  she  can 
remove  a  Reader  either  from  the  Mother  Church  or  from  any 
of  the  branch  churches  whenever  she  sees  fit  and  without  ex- 
planation.^ 

The  Clerk  and  Treasurer  of  the  church  are  elected  once  a 
year  by  the  directors,  subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval.* 

Executive  Members:  Prior  to  1903  these  were  known  as 
First  Members,  They  shall  not  be  less  than  fifty  in  number, 
nor  more  than  one  hundred.  They  must  have  certain  qualifica- 
tions (such  as  residing  within  five  hundred  miles  of  Boston),  and 
they  must  hold  a  meeting  once  a  year  and  special  meetings  at 


^Church   Manual    (4?.d   cd.),   Article    I,   Sec.   5. 

^Ibicl.    (43d  ed.),  Article   I,   Sec.  2. 

''Ibid.    (43d  ed.),  Article  I,   Sec.  4.     Ibid,   (llth  ed.),  Article  XXIII,  Sec.  2. 

^Ibid.    (43d  ed.).  Article  I,  Sec.  3. 


472        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mrs.  Eddy's  call.  They  have  no  powers  and  no  duties  ^  and 
they  are  not  allowed  to  be  present  at  the  business  meetings 
of  the  church.  The  manner  of  their  election  is  unusual.  The 
by-laws  state  that  a  member  can  be  made  an  Executive  Member 
only  after  a  letter  is  received  by  the  directors  from  Mrs.  Eddy 
requesting  them  to  make  said  persons  Executive  Members ;  and 
then,  "  they  shall  be  elected  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Board 
of  Directors."  " 

This  "  executive  "  board  is  a  form  only,  and  membership  on 
it  is  merely  a  mark  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  favour.  To  her 
followers,  however,  this  is  sufficient  reason  for  its  existence,  and 
they  are  proud  to  be  called  members  of  it. 

Although  Mrs.  Eddy  has  made  a  by-law  which  says  that  the 
branch  churches  shall  have  "  local  self-government,"  she  gives 
special  instructions  in  the  Manual  as  to  what  the  branch  churches 
may  or  may  not  do.  The  Church  Manual  is  closely  followed 
by  all  the  branch  churches,  and  as  practically  all  the  members 
of  the  branch  churches  are  also  members  of  the  Mother  Church, 
it  is  the  duty  of  each  to  obey  all  the  requirements  of  the  Manual. 

A  branch  church  can  only  be  organised  by  a  member  of  the 
Mother  Church.'' 

A  branch  church  may  not  use  the  article  "  the  "  in  its  title. 
Only  the  Mother  Church  ipay  employ  it.'^ 

No  conference  of  branch  churches  shall  be  held  except  the 
annual  conference  at  the  Mother  Church.'^ 


'  Formerly  the  Executive  Members  were  permitted  to  fix  the  salaries  of  the 
Readers,  but  in  the  last  edition  of  the  Manual  this  privilege  has  been  with- 
drawn. 

^ovhurch   Manual    (43d   ed.).   Article   VI. 

"/bid.    (1004),  Article   XXVIII. 

^■-Ihiil.    (1004),    Article   XX VI II. 

"/«>id.    (1904),   Article   XXVIII. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  473 

A  branch  church  may  not  have  other  church  branches,  nor 
shall  it  be  organised  with  Executive  Members/* 

Communion  time  for  the  branch  churches  is  fixed  by  the 
Manual.'' 

In  laying  its  corner-stone,  a  branch  church  must  not  permit 
a  "  large  gathering  of  people."  '® 

The  services  of  the  branch  churches  are  definitely  prescribed; 
they  are  to  consist  of  music,  Mrs.  Eddy's  prayer,  and  oral 
readings  from  Science  and  Health  and  the  Bible. 

Mrs.  Eddy  may  appoint  or  remove — without  explanation — 
the  Readers  of  the  branch  churches  at  any  time.''^ 

The  branch  churches  may  never  have  comments  or  remarks 
made  by  their  Readers,  either  upon  passages  from  Science  and 
Health  or  from  the  Bible. ^^ 

The  branch  churches  may  have  lectures  only  by  lecturers 
whom  Mrs.  Eddy  has  appointed  in  the  usual  way — through  the 
"  vote  "  of  her  Board  of  Directors.'"  And  the  lecture  must 
have  passed  censorship. "** 

After  listening  to  such  a  lecture,  the  members  of  the  branch 
churches  are  not  permitted  to  give  a  reception  or  to  meet  for 
social  intercourse.  Mrs.  Eddy  tells  them  to  "  depart  in  quiet 
thought."  ''  It  seems  probable  that  this  by-law  was  devised 
for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  lecturer.  If  feted  or  made  much 
of  after  his  discourse  he  might  easily  become  puffed  up  with 
pride  of  place. 


^*  Church  Manual   (1904),  Article  XXVIII. 
^■'/6(V/.    (1004),  Article  XXVIII. 
^^  Ibid.    (1004),   Article   XXVIII. 
" /&irf.    (11th  od.).  Article  XXIII. 
^^'IhUl.    (43d    ed.),    Article    IV. 
"  IhUl.    (43d    ed.).    Article    XXXIV. 
^Ihid.    (43d  ed.).   Article   XXXIV. 
"/6irf.    (43d   ed.),    Article   XXXIV. 


474        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Services  in  the  branch  churches,  as  in  the  Mother  Church, 
are  hinited  to  the  Sunday  morning  and  evening  readings  from 
the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health,  the  Wednesday  evening  ex- 
perience meetings,  and  to  the  communion  service.  (In  the 
Mother  Church  this  occurs  but  once  a  year,  in  the  branch 
churches  twice.)  There  is  no  baptismal  service,"^  no  marriage 
or  burial  service,  and  weddings  and  funerals  are  never  con-^ 
ducted  in  any  of  the  Christian  Science  churches. 

Included  in  the  Mother  Church  organisation  are  the  Publi- 
cation Committee,  the  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society,  the 
Board  of  Lectureship,  the  Board  of  Missionaries,  and  the 
Board  of  Education,  all  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  control. 

The  manager  of  the  Publication  Committee,  at  present  Mr. 
Alfred  Farlow,  is  "  elected  "  annually  by  the  Board  of  Direct- 
ors under  Mrs.  Eddy's  instructions.  His  salary  is  to  be  not 
less  than  $5,000  a  year.  This  Publication  Committee  is  a  press 
bureau,  consisting  of  a  manager  with  headquarters  in  Boston 
and  of  various  branch  committees  throughout  the  field.  It  is  the 
duty  of  a  member  of  this  committee,  wherever  he  resides,  to  reply 
promptly  through  the  press  to  any  criticism  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence or  of  Mrs.  Eddy  which  may  be  made  in  his  part  of  the 
country,  and  to  insert  in  the  newspapers  of  his  territory  as 
much  matter  favourable  to  Christian  Science  as  they  will  print. 
In  replying  to  criticism  this  bureau  will,  if  necessary,  pay  the 
regular  advertising  rate  for  the  publication  of  their  statements. 
The  members  of  this  committee,  after  having  written  and  pub- 
lished  their   articles  in  defence  of  Christian  Science,  are  also 

'•  When  the  Boston  church  was  hoklins  its  services  in  Chickerins  Hall,  Mrs. 
Eddy  baptised  a  class  of  children.  No  water  was  used  in  the  cereiuonv.  This 
was    the   only    baptismal    service   ever   held    in   a    Christian   Science   church. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  475 

responsible,  says  the  Manual,  "  for  having  the  papers  contain- 
ing these  articles  circulated  in  large  quantities."  This  press 
agency  has  been  extremely  effective  in  pushing  the  interests  of 
Christian  Science,  in  keeping  it  before  the  public,  and  in  building 
up  a  desirable  legendry  around  Mrs.  Eddy. 

The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society  is  conducted  for 
the  purpose  of  publishing  and  marketing  Mrs.  Eddy's  works 
and  the  three  Christian  Science  periodicals,  the  Christian  Science 
Journal,  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  and  Der  Christian  Sci- 
ence Herold.  It  is  managed  and  controlled  by  a  Board  of 
Trustees  appointed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  the  net  profits  of  the 
business  are  turned  over  semi-annually  to  the  treasurer  of  the 
Mother  Church.  The  manager  and  editors  are  appointed  for 
one  year  only,  and  must  be  elected  or  reelected  by  a  vote  of 
the  directors  and  "  the  consent  of  the  Pastor  Emeritus,  given 
in  her  own  handwriting."  The  Manual  also  states  that  a  person 
who  is  not  accepted  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  suitable  shall  in  no  manner 
be  connected  with  publishing  her  books  or  editing  her  peri- 
odicals. 

Until  1898  any  Christian  Scientist  could  give  public  talks 
or  lectures  upon  the  doctrines  of  his  faith,  but  in  January  of 
that  year  Mrs.  Eddy  withdrew  this  privilege.  She  appointed 
a  Board  of  Lectureship,  carefully  selecting  each  member  and 
assigning  each  to  a  certain  district.  In  this  work  she  placed 
several  of  her  most  influential  men,  among  whom  was  Septimus 
J.  Hanna.  As  itinerant  lecturers  these  men  could  not  very 
well  build  up  a  dangerously  strong  personal  following,  and  they 
could  very  ably  set  forth  the  Christian  Science  doctrines.  These 
lecturers  are  elected  annually,  subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval. 


476        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Their  representative  lectures  must  be  censored  by  the  clerk  of 
the  Mother  Church.  The  Manual  stipulates  that  these  lectures 
must  "  bear  testimony  to  the  facts  pertaining  to  the  life  of 
the  Pastor  Emeritus." 

Seven  missionaries  are  elected  annually  by  the  Board  of 
Directors,  and  their  duties  are  to  fill  vacancies  in  pulpits  and 
to  "  correctly  propagate  "  Christian  Science  wherever  it  Is  most 
needed. 

The  Board  of  Education  consists  of  three  members,  the 
President,  Vice-President,  and  a  teacher.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the 
permanent  President — unless,  says  the  Manual,  she  sees  fit  to 
"  resign  over  her  own  signature."  The  Vice-President  and 
teacher  are  elected  from  time  to  time,  "  subject  to  the  approval 
of  the  Pastor  Emeritus." 

It  is  not  easy  to  become  a  member  of  the  Mother  Church. 
The  applicant  for  admission  must  read  nothing  upon  meta- 
physics or  religion  except  Mrs.  Eddy's  books  and  the  Bible, 
and  his  application  must  be  countersigned  by  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
loyal  students,  who  is  made  responsible  for  the  candidate's 
sincerity.  There  are  many  things  for  which  the  new  member 
may  be  expelled  after  he  is  once  admitted  into  the  church. 
He  may  not  haunt  the  roads  upon  which  Mrs.  Eddy  drives.  He 
may  not  discuss,  lecture  upon,  or  debate  upon  Christian  Science 
in  public  without  permission  from  one  of  her  representatives. 
He  must  not  be  a  "  leader  "  in  the  church  and  must  never  be 
called  one.  He  may  read  only  the  Bible  and  Mrs.  Eddy's 
books  for  religious  instruction.  He  shall  not  "  vilify  "  the 
Pastor  Emeritus.  He  must  go  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  home  and 
serve  her  in  person  for  one  year  if  she  requires  it  of  him.     He 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  477 

may  not  permit  his  children  to  beheve  in  Santa  Claus — Mrs. 
Eddy  abolished  Santa  Claus  by  proclamation  in  1904.  He  may 
not  read  or  quote  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  books  without  first  naming 
the  author.  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  in  explanation  of  this  by-law: 
"  To  pour  into  the  ears  of  listeners  the  sacred  revelations  of 
Christian  Science  indiscriminately,  or  without  characterising 
their  origin  and  thus  distinguishing  them  from  the  writings  of 
authors  who  think  at  random  on  this  subject,  is  to  lose  some 
weight  in  the  scale  of  right  thinking."  ^^ 

A  Christian  Scientist  "  shall  neither  buy,  sell  nor  circulate 
Christian  Science  literature  which  is  not  correct  in  its  state- 
ment," etc.,  Mrs.  Eddy,  of  course,  determining  whether  or  not 
the  statement  is  correct.  He  "  shall  not  patronise  a  publishing 
house  or  bookstore  that  has  for  sale  obnoxious  books." 

A  Christian  Scientist  may  not  belong  to  any  club  or  society, 
which  excludes  either  sex.  Free  Masons  excepted,  outside  the 
Mother  Church.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  church  organisations 
are  ample  for  him.^* 

It  is  indicative  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  influence  over  her  followers 
that  when  this  by-law  was  issued,  less  than  twenty  inquiries 
(so  her  secretary  announced)  were  received  at  Pleasant  View. 
Men  resigned  from  their  political,  business,  and  social  clubs, 
women  from  their  literary  and  patriotic  organisations,  without 
a  murmur  and  without  a  question. 

No  hymns  may  be  sung  in  the  Mother  Church  unless  they 
have  been  approved  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  hymns 
must  be  sung  at  stated  intervals.     "  If  a  solo  singer  in  the 

^3  Church    Manual    (11th    ed.),    Article    XV. 
'Ubid.    (43d   ed.),    Article   XXVI. 


478        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

Mother  Church  shall  either  neglect  or  refuse  to  sing  alone  a 
hymn  written  by  our  Leader  and  Pastor  Emeritus,  as  often 
as  once  each  month,  and  oftener  if  the  Directors  so  direct,  a 
meeting  shall  be  called  and  the  salary  of  this  singer  shall  be 
stopped." 

Above  all  these  lesser  by-laws  Mrs.  Eddy  holds  one  in  which 
her  supreme  authority  rests.  A  mesmerist  or  "  mental  mal- 
practitioner  "  is  to  be  excommunicated,  and  "  if  the  author  of 
Science  and  Health  shall  bear  witness  to  the  offence  of  mental 
malpractice,  it  shall  be  considered  sufficient  evidence  thereof."  ^^ 
The  accused  can  make  no  defence,  and  has  no  appeal.  In  the 
matter  of  hypnotism,  Mrs.  Eddy's  mere  word  is  enough.  She 
has,  she  says,  an  unerring  instinct  by  which  she  can  detect 
hypnotism  in  any  creature : 

I  possess  a  spiritual  sense  of  what  the  malicious  mental  practitioner 
is  mentally  arguing  which  cannot  be  deceived;  I  can  discern  in  the  human 
mind  thoughts,  motives,  and  purposes;  and  neither  mental  arguments  nor 
psychic  power  can  aflfect  this  spiritual  insight.-' 

Of  late  years  Mrs.  Eddy  has  shown  a  disposition  to  so  modify 
the  practice  of  Christian  Science  healing  as  not  to  conflict  with 
the  laws.  Christian  Scientists  formerly  treated  all  diseases, 
without  regard  to  legal  restrictions.  But  experience  has  shown 
Mrs.  Eddy  that  an  evasion  of  the  law  is  regarded  by  the  public 
as  a  defiance  of  the  law,  and  forms  a  serious  obstacle  to  the 
spread  of  Christian  Science.  It  also  has  involved  Christian 
Scientists  constantly  in  lawsuits. 

In  March,  1901,  Mrs.  Eddy  announced  in  the  Journal  that 

^-^  Church    Manual    (43d    cd.),    Article   XXII.    Sec.    4.  * 

■'^Christian  Bcienve  Hisiory,  by  Mary   B.  G.   Eddy    (1st  ed.),  p.  16. 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  479 

thereafter  Christian  Scientists  must  submit  to  vaccination,  and 
report  cases  of  contagion  as  required  by  law. 

A  year  later  the  teaching  and  practice  of  obstetrics  was 
dropped  by  order  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  gave  as  the  reason, 
"  Obstetrics  is  not  Science,  and  will  not  be  taught."  This  was 
after  obstetrics  had  been  taught  and  practised  as  "  Science  " 
for  thirty-two  years. 

An  important  change  of  practice  was  instituted  when,  in 
December,  1902,  the  Journal  announced :  "  Mrs.  Eddy  advises, 
until  the  public  thought  becomes  better  acquainted  with  Chris- 
tian Science,  that  Christian  Scientists  decline  to  doctor  infec- 
tious or  contagious  diseases."  On  the  same  subject  Mrs.  Eddy 
wrote :  "  Christian  Scientists  should  be  influenced  by  their  own 
judgment  in  the  taking  of  a  case  of  malignant  disease,  they 
should  consider  well  their  ability  to  cope  with  the  case — and 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  there  are  those  lying  in  wait  to  catch 
them  in  their  sayings ;  neither  should  they  forget  that  in  their 
practice,  whether  successful  or  not,  they  are  not  especially  pro- 
tected by  law." 

Christian  Scientists  are  now  permitted  to  consult  with  medical 
practitioners  in  certain  cases.  A  by-law  provides  that,  "  if  a 
member  of  this  church  has  a  patient  that  he  does  not  heal ;  and 
whose  case  he  cannot  lawfully  diagnose,  he  may  consult  with 
an  M.D.  on  the  anatomy  involved.  And  it  shall  be  the  privilege 
of  a  Christian  Scientist  to  confer  with  an  M.D.  on  ontology, 
or  the  Science   of  Being." 

Christian  Scientists  are  no  longer  allowed  to  use  the  titles, 
"  Reverend,"  or  "  Doctor,"  unless  they  have  received  these 
titles  under  the  laws  of  the  state. 


480         LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

A  practitioner  is  not  permitted  to  sue  a  patient  to  recover 
payment  for  his  services,  and  he  is  required  to  "  reasonably 
reduce  "  his  fee  in  chronic  cases,  and  in  cases  where  he  has  not 
effected  a  cure. 

The  result  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  planning  and  training  and  pruning 
is  that  she  has  built  up  the  largest  and  most  powerful  organisa- 
tion ever  founded  by  any  woman  in  America.  Probably  no 
other  woman  so  handicapped — so  limited  in  intellect,  so  un- 
certain in  conduct,  so  tortured  by  hatred  and  hampered  by  petty 
animosities — has  ever  risen  from  a  state  of  helplessness  and 
dependence  to  a  position  of  such  power  and  authority.  All 
that  Christian  Science  comprises  to-day — the  Mother  Church, 
branch  churches,  healers,  teachers,  Readers,  boards,  committees, 
societies — are  as  completely  under  Mrs.  Eddy's  control  as  if 
she  were  their  temporal  as  well  as  their  spiritual  ruler.  The 
growth  of  her  power  has  been  extensive  as  well  as  inten- 
sive. 

In  June,  1907,  the  membership  of  the  Mother  Church,  accord- 
ing to  the  Secretary's  report,  was  43,876.  The  membership 
of  the  branch  churches  amounted  to  42,846.  As  members 
of  the  branch  churches  are  almost  invariably  members  of  the 
Mother  Church  as  well,  there  cannot  be  more  than  60,000  Chris- 
tian Scientists  in  the  world  to-day,  and  the  number  is  probably 
nearer  50,000. 

In  June,  1907,  there  were  in  all  710  branch  churches.  Fifty- 
eight  of  these-are  in  foreign  countries:  twenty-five  in  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada,  fourteen  in  Great  Britain,  two  in  Ireland, 
four  in  Australia,  one  in  South  Africa,  eight  in  Mexico,  two 
in  Germany,  one  in  Holland,  and  one  in  France.     There  are 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  481 

also  295  Christian  Science  societies,  not  yet  incorporated  into 
churches,  thirty  of  which  are  in  foreign  countries. ^^ 

In  reading  these  figures  one  must  bear  in  mind  the  fact 
that  thirty  years  ago  the  only  Christian  Science  church  in  the 
world  was  struggling  to  pay  its  rent  in  Boston. 

An  effective  element  in  the  growth  of  the  church  is  the  fact 
that  a  considerable  proportion  of  Christian  Scientists  make  their 
living  by  their  religion,  and  their  worldly  fortunes  as  well  as 
their  spiritual  comfort  are  in  their  church ;  they  must  prosper 
or  decline  with  Christian  Science,  and  they  prosecute  the  cause 
of  their  church  with  all  their  energies  and  with  entire  singleness 
of  purpose.  The  perfect  system  under  which  the  church  is 
organised  provides  for  the  constant  advertising,  by  the  Publi- 
cation Committee,  of  the  religion,  of  the  church,  and  of  Mrs. 
Eddy ;  and  this  has  been  perhaps  the  greatest  factor  in  the 
growth  of  the  church.  There  is  an  impression  to-day  that  the 
Christian  Science  church  numbers  its  members  by  hundreds  of 
thousands ;  and  this  impression  was  created  and  is  continued 
by  the  exaggerated  statements  of  Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  and  of 
her  leading  church  officers,  and  by  the  insistent  work  of  the 
Publication  Committees. 

Christian  Science  itself  presents,  superficially,  an  old  and 
well-worn  truth,  besides  much  that  is  fallacious  and  absurd ; 
and  the  secret  of  its  popularity  lies  in  the  fact,  not  that  it  has 
played  tricks  with  metaphysical  platitudes,  but  that  it  has 
adapted  them  to  the  buoyant  spirit  of  the  times. 

"  In  June,  1907,  there  were  3,515  authorised  Christian  Science  "  healers " 
in  the  world,  3,268,  of  whom  aro  practisin,<?  in  the  ITnited  States,  1  in  Alaska, 
03  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  5  in  Mexico,  1  in  Cuba,  1  in  South  Africa,  18 
in  Australia,  1  in  China,  105  in  England,  5  in  Ireland,  9  in  Scotland,  7  in 
France,  15  in  Germany,  4  in  Holland,  1  in  India,  1  in  Italy,  1  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  1  in  Russia,  1  in  South  America,  7  io  Switzerland. 


482        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

What  Mrs.  Eddy  has  accompHshed  has  been  due  solely  to 
her  own  compelling  personality.  She  has  never  been  a  dreamer 
of  dreams  or  a  seer  of  visions,  and  she  has  not  the  mind  for 
deep  and  searching  investigation  into  any  problem.  Her  genius 
has  been  of  the  eminently  practical  kind,  which  can  meet  and 
overcome  unfavourable  conditions  by  sheer  force  of  energy,  and 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  case  this  potency  has  been  accompanied  by  a 
remarkable  shrewdness,  which  has  had  its  part  in  determining 
her  career.  Her  problem  has  been,  not  to  work  out  the  theory 
of  mental  healing,  but  to  popularise  it,  and  having  popularised 
it,  to  maintain  a  personal  monopoly  of  its  principle ;  and  the 
history  of  Christian  Science  shows  how  near  she  has  come  to 
doing  this. 

Not  until  Mrs.  Eddy  met  Quimby  had  she  ever  known  any 
serious  purpose,  and  although  she  was  superbly  equipped  by 
nature  to  blaze  the  way  for  new  and  bizarre  ideas,  and  was 
ahyays  the  first  to  take  up  with  such  irregular  and  passing 
notions  as  mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  writing-mediumship,  etc., 
she  had  never  produced  an  original  idea  on  her  own  account. 
With  Quimby  came  her  opportunity,  and  once  given  an 
actual  purpose,  Mrs.  Eddy,  with  her  unequalled  zeal  for 
not  letting  go  of  a  thing,  was  at  once  upon  the  highroad  to 
success. 

For  herself,  she  has  won  what  has  always  seemed  to  her  most 
valuable,  and  what  has  been  from  the  beginning  a  crying 
necessity  of  her  nature:  personal  ease,  an  exalted  position,  and 
the  right  to  exact  homage  from  the  multitude. 

For  Quimby,  she  has,  and  mainly  by  reason  of  her  ingratitude 
toward  her  old  benefactor,  secured  public  attention  to  his  theory 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  483 

of  mental  healing.  Through  Dr.  Warren  F.  Evans  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Julius  A.  Dresser  the  Quimby  idea,^^  previous  to 
the  Christian  Science  interpretation  of  it,  had  been  slowly  and 
laboriously  coming  into  a  limited  practice ;  but  with  the  entrance 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  into  the  field,  with  her  extravagant  claims  of 
miraculous  revelation  and  her  violent  methods  of  procedure,  the 
whole  movement  received  a  tremendous  impetus ;  and  uncon- 
sciously and  very  much  against  her  will,  she  has  been  the  most 
effective  agent  in  promoting  Quimbyism  as  well  as  Eddyism. 
For,  although  it  has  been  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  chief  cares  to 
stem  the  progress  of  the  rival  school,  and  to  raise  an  impassable 
barrier  between  her  own  cult  and  that  of  all  other  mental  healers, 
it  has  not  disturbed  the  fact  that  for  practical  purposes, 
Eddyism  is  simply  Quimbyism,  overlaid  with  superstition  and 
ignorance ;  and  the  future  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  school  depends 
largely  upon  the  willingness  of  her  followers  to  continue  their 
self-deception  on  this  point,  which  is  the  chief  requirement  of 
her  religion. 

Whatever  there  is  of  value  to  the  world  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
system,  lies  in  the  practicality  of  its  healing  methods,  and  the 
foregoing  chapters  have  shown  that  Mrs.  Eddy  realises  this, 


"  The  reader  who  Is  Interested  In  Qulmby's  teaching  and  healing  Is  referred 
to  The  True  History  of  Mental  Science,  by  Julius  A.  Dresser,  published  by 
George    H.    Ellis,    272    Congress   Street,   Boston. 

Dr.  Warren  F.  Evans,  in  his  book,  Mental  Medicine,  published  three  years 
before  the  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health,  said  :  Disease  being  in  its  root 
a  wrong  belief,  change  that  belief  and  we  cure  the  disease.  By  faith  we  are 
thus  made  whole.  There  is  a  law  here  which  the  world  will  sometime  under- 
stand and  use  in  the  cure  of  the  diseases  that  afflict  mankind.  The  late  Dr. 
Quimby,  of  Portland,  one  of  the  most  successful  healers  of  this  or  any  age, 
embraced  this  view  of  the  nature  of  disease,  and  by  a  long  succession  of  the 
most  remarkable  cures,  effected  by  psychopathic  remedies,  at  the  same  time 
proved  the  truth  of  the  theory  and  the  efficiency  of  that  mode  of  treatment. 
Had  he  lived  in  a  remote  age  or  country,  the  wonderful  facts  which  occurred  in 
his  practice  would  now  have  been  deemed  either  mythical  or  miraculous.  He 
seemed  to  reproduce  the  wonders  of  Gospel  history.  But  all  this  was  only 
an  exhibition  of  the  force  of  suggestion,  or  the  action  of  the  law  of  faith, 
over  a  patient  in  the  impressible  condition." 


484        LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  AND 

for  she  has  not  only  constantly  stimulated  the  healing  depart- 
ment of  her  church,  but,  year  by  year,  she  has  restrained  and 
modified  its  practice,  until  to-day  Christian  Science  is  scarcely 
more  radical  in  its  methods  than  are  the  regular  schools  of 
her  best  hated  enemy,  materia  medica.  Physicians  have  been 
forced  to  take  into  account,  more  and  more,  in  their  dealings 
with  the  sick,  the  condition  of  the  patient's  mind,  and  to  use 
it  as  a  co-operative  force  with  their  medical  treatment ;  and 
in  America  this  is  largely  owing  to  the  stir  made  by  Mrs.  Eddy's 
healers  in  the  sick  world.  In  Europe  this  result  has  been  ob- 
tained, not  through  mystery  and  revelation  and  quackery,  but 
in  the  course  of  regular  scientific  study  and  experiment,  and 
in  the  schools  of  the  foremost  European  neurologists,  psychical 
treatment  for  certain  disorders  has  been  for  many  years  a 
recognised  and  established  method. 

There  is  now  in  America  a  benevolent  attempt  on  the  part 
of  certain  churches  to  introduce  a  kind  of  reformed  Christian 
Science,  and  to  establish  "  clinics  "  where  sick  cases  may  be 
diagnosed  by  regular  school  physicians,  while  the  pastors  in 
charge  of  the  clinics  administer  the  psychical  treatment  in  an 
effort  to  aid  in  the  cure.  They  aim,  at  these  clinics,  to  conduct 
the  treatment  on  as  scientific  a  basis  as  is  possible,  and  their 
failures  as  well  as  their  successful  cures  are  honestly  recorded. 
These  church  movements  are  an  indirect  outcome  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
activities.  Her  own  congregations  are  built  up  at  the  expense 
of  those  of  the  orthodox  churches,  and  it  is  largely  as  a  means 
of  self-preservation,  as  well  as  owing  to  a  laudable  desire  to 
increase  the  benefits  of  mental  healing,  that  these  churches  are 
taking   up   the   practical   side   of   Christian    Science,    and    are 


HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  485 

trying  to  make  it  "  regular  "  and  to  conform  to  what  is  known 
of  psychological  causes  and  effects. 

These  various  efforts  to  investigate  the  source  and  workings 
of  an  elusive  healing  principle  are  not  without  their  value, 
even  if  the  actual  practice  is  more  often  based  upon  enthusiasm 
than  upon  any  exact  knowledge.  They  serve  to  emphasise 
both  the  benefits  of  psychical  treatment  and  the  harm  which 
may  rise  from  its  ignorant  or  exclusive  application  in  radical 
cases.  But,  from  the  nature  of  the  subject,  it  is  certain  that 
the  permanent  value  of  suggestive  therapeutics  will  ultimately 
be  determined,  not  by  the  inexperienced  or  the  overzealous  in 
any  walk  of  life,  but  through  the  slow  and  patient  experiments 
of  medical  science ;  and  this,  too,  will  be  the  final  test  of  the 
value  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life-work. 


APPENDIX  A 

In    Mrs.    Eddy's    autobiography,    Retrospection    and    Intro- 
spection, she  gives  the  following  story  of  her  ancestry : 

My  ancestors,  according  to  the  flesh,  were  from  both  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land, my  great-grandfather  on  my  father's  side  being  John  McNeil  of 
Edinburgh.  His  wife,  my  great-grandmother,  was  Marion  Moor,  and  her 
family  is  said  to  have  been  in  some  way  related  to  Hannah  More,  the 
pious  and  popular  authoress  of  a  century  ago.  John  and  Marion  Moor 
McNeil  had  a  daughter  who  perpetuated  her  mother's  name.  This  second 
Marion  McNeil  was  married  to  an  Englishman  named  Joseph  Baker,  and  so 
became  my  paternal  grandmother.  Joseph  Baker  and  his  wife,  Marion 
McNeil,  came  to  America  seeking  freedom  to  worship  God,  though  they 
could  scarcely  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  more  than  a  score  of  years  prior 
to  the  Revolutionary  period.  A  relative  of  my  grandfather  Baker  was  Gen- 
eral Henry  Knox,  of  Revolutionary  fame.  In  the  line  of  my  grandmother 
Baker's  family  was  the  late  Sir  John  McNeil,  a  Scotch  knight  who  was 
prominent  in  British  politics  and  at  one  time  held  the  position  of  ambas- 
sador to  Persia. 

The  statements  made  by  Mrs.  Eddy  concerning  her  connection 
with  the  McNeil  family  of  Scotland  having  been  published  in 
a  way  that  brought  them  to  the  attention  of  that  family  in 
Scotland,  drew  a  denial  from  the  granddaughter  of  the  real 
Sir  John  MacNeill.  In  the  Ladies^  Home  Journal  for  Novem- 
ber, 1903,  there  appeared  an  article  entitled  "  Mrs.  Eddy  as 
She  Really  Is,"  introduced  by  an  editorial  note  which  stated: 
"  The  writing  of  this  article  and  the  making  of  illustrations 
on  the  opposite  page  were  done  with  the  special  permission  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  both  pages  having  been  seen  by  her  in  proof, 
received  her  full  approval."     In  the  course  of  this  article,  it  is 

486 


APPENDIX  A  487 

said:  "Among  Mrs.  Eddy's  ancestors  was  Sir  John  McNeill, 
a  Scotch  knight  prominent  in  British  politics,  and  ambassador  to 
Persia.  Her  great-grandfather  was  the  Right  Honourable  Sir 
John  McNeill  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  only 
survivor  of  her  father's  family,  which  bore  the  coat-of-arms 
of  the  ancient  McNeills.  The  motto  is  Vincere  aut  mori 
(conquer  or  die).  Surrounding  the  shield  and  enclosed  in  a 
heavy  wreath  is  the  motto  of  the  Order  of  the  Bath,  tria  juncta 
in  uno  (three  joined  in  one)."  Soon  after  this  was  published 
it  was  challenged  by  a  granddaughter  of  Sir  John  MacNeill, 
Mrs.  Florence  Macalister  of  Aberdeen,  Scotland,  who  wrote 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  correcting  her  statement,  and  caused  a  correction 
to  be  published  in  London  Truth.     She  says : 

I  am  the  only  married  grandchild  of  the  late  Right  Honourable  Sir 
John  MacNeill,  G.C.B.,  of  Edinburgh,  "  who  was  prominent  in  British 
politics  and  Ambassador  to  Persia,"  and  Mrs.  Eddy  is  certainly  not  my 
daughter. 

My  mother,  Margaret  Ferooza  MacNeill,  was  the  only  child  of  his  who 
reached  maturity,  though  he  was  three  times  married;  she  married  my 
father,  Duncan  Stewart,  R.N.,  now  captain,  retired,  and  died  in  1871.  Of 
her  six  children,  one  died  unmarried,  three  years  ago;  five  survive,  of  whom 
four  are  unmarried. 

I  am  the  wife  of  Commander  N.  G.  Macalister,  R.N.,  who  is  at  present 
inspecting  officer  of  coast  guard  for  Aberdeen  division. 

I  wrote  to  the  editor  of  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  who  published  Mrs. 
Eddy's  statement,  asking  him  to  publish  a  correction,  and  I  sent  a  copy 
of  the  letter  to  Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  She  did  not  reply  at  all,  and  he  excused 
himself  from  publishing  it  on  the  ground  that  the  correction  could  not 
appear  for  five  months. 

In  March,  1904,  after  the  publication  of  Mrs.  Macalister's 
correction  had  been  copied  widely  in  American  papers,  Mrs. 
Eddy  caused  a  paragraph  to  be  inserted  in  the  Christian  Science 
Sentinel,  saying  that  writers  of  her  genealogy  had  been  accus- 


488  APPENDIX  A 

tomed  to  connect  her  with  the  Sir  John  MacNeill  family,  and 
it  was  supposed  she  had  a  right  to  use  the  MacNeill  coat-of- 
arms.  She  notified  genealogical  writers  not  to  do  so  thereafter. 
Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  continues  to  use  the  MacNeill  coat-of- 
arms,  which  is  engraved  upon  her  stationery  and  impressed 
upon  her  seal.  She  defended  her  continued  use  of  the  coat-of- 
arms  in  a  widely-published  statement,  issued  in  January,  1907, 
as  follows: 

The  facts  regarding  the  McNeill  coat-of-arms  are  as  follows:  Fannie 
McNeill,  President  Pierce's  niece,  afterward  Mrs.  Judge  Potter,  presented 
to  me  my  coat-of-arms,  saying  that  it  was  taken  in  connection  with  her 
own  family  coat-of-arms.     I  never  doubted  the  veracity  of  the  gift. 

Mrs.  Macalister,  in  a  recent  letter,  writes :  "  I  have  been 
amused  to  find  that  Mrs.  Eddy  still  uses  my  grandfather's  coat- 
of-arms  on  her  notepaper,  including  the  motto  of  the  Bath, 
which  even  his  son,  had  he  left  one,  would  have  had  no  right 
to  use,  as  the  G.C.B.  was  for  life  only." 


APPENDIX  B 

Andrew  Jackson  Davis  was  born  August  11,  1826,  in  Bloom- 
ing Grove,  Orange  County,  N.  Y.  He  grew  up  in  poverty  and 
ignorance,  and  at  seventeen  he  had  received  about  five  months' 
schoohng  and  had  learned  to  read,  write,  and  do  simple  sums 
in  arithmetic.  He  was  of  average  intelligence  and  had  no  tastes 
or  ambitions  out  of  the  ordinary.  In  the  year  1843,  he  first 
heard  of  animal  magnetism,  and  he  was  himself  magnetised 
repeatedly  by  William  Levingston,  a  tailor  in  Poughkeepsie, 
where  Davis  then  lived.  Davis  showed  surprising  clairvoyant 
powers  while  in  the  magnetic  state,  and  soon  he,  with  Levingston 
as  magnetiser,  was  using  his  clairvoyant  ability  to  diagnose  cases 
of  sickness  and  to  prescribe  remedies.  By  degrees  what  he  called 
his  "  scientific  "  insight  was  developed,  and  soon,  his  biographer 
says,  "  there  was  no  science  the  general  principles  and  much 
of  minutiae  of  which  he  did  not  seem  to  comprehend  while  in 
his  abnormal  state." 

On  March  7,  1844,  Davis  fell  into  a  magnetic  or  "  superior  " 
condition  without  the  assistance  of  the  magnetic  process,  and 
for  two  days  he  was  "  insensible  to  external  things."  He  wan- 
dered in  the  Catskill  Mountains,  and  while  there  he  received, 
"  interiorly,"  Information  of  his  future  mission. 

The  following  year  he  went  to  New  York  and  commenced 
to  lecture,  while  in  the  clairvoyant  state.  Dr.  S.  S.  Lyon  of 

489 


490  APPENDIX  B 

Bridgeport,  Conn.,  acting  as  his  magnetiser.  The  last  of  these 
lectures  was  delivered  on  January  25,  184<7.  The  lectures  were 
published  in  a  book  entitled,  The  Principles  of  Nature,  Her 
Divine  Revelations,  and  a  Voice  to  Mankind.  Davis  continued 
to  lecture,  and  to  write  voluminously.  His  written  works  con- 
sist of  thirty-six  volumes,  nearly  all  of  which,  it  is  claimed, 
were  produced  while  the  author  was  in  a  state  of  clairvoyance. 
The  chief  of  these  are  his  first  books,  the  Divine  Revelations 
(184)7),  and  The  Great  Harmonia  (1850).  In  these  Davis 
gives  a  history  of  the  universe,  the  formation  of  the  earth,  the 
origin  of  man,  and  the  gradual  development  of  present  civilisa- 
tion. In  his  first  volume  he  gives  a  "  Key  "  to  the  principles 
of  nature,  and  relates  the  "  true  "  version  of  sacred  history,  cor- 
recting and  explaining  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as  he 
goes  along.  He  gives  his  interior  impressions  of  the  real 
scheme  of  the  material  universe  and  of  the  spiritual  world,  and 
the  relations  between  the  two. 

Davis  called  this  "  revealed  "  system  "  The  Harmonial  Philos- 
ophy," and  developed  it  at  length  in  the  six  volumes  of  The 
Great  Harmonia.  In  many  points  Davis's  philosophy  of  life 
and  his  theory  of  disease  resemble  Quimby's,  and  much  of  the 
terminology  is  the  same.  (When  Davis  began  to  lecture  and 
to  write,  Quimby  had  for  several  years  been  practising  and 
teaching  but,  so  far  as  known,  Davis  had  never  met  Quimby.) 
For  example,  Davis  states :  "  There  is  but  one  Principle,  one 
united  attribute  of  Goodness  and  Truth."  This  he  calls  the 
"  unchangeable,  eternal  Positive  Mind,"  which  "  fills  all  nega- 
tive substances.  Worlds,  their  forces,  their  physical  existences, 
with  their  life  and  forces,  are  all  negative  to  this  Positive  Mind. 


APPENDIX  B  491 

This  is  the  great  Positive  Power."  He  compares  his  system 
to  a  wheel,  the  centre  of  which  "  is  a  Focus  for  the  universal 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  Truth,  and  the  one  unchangeable  Prin- 
ciple." "  Truth,"  he  states,  "  is  positive  Principle ;  error  is  a 
negative  principle,  and  as  Truth  is  positive  and  eternal,  it  must 
subdue  error,  which  is  only  temporal  and  artificial." 

This  Positive  Mind  he  also  calls  Divine  Intelligence,  the  First 
Cause,  etc.  He  says :  "  Power,  Wisdom,  Goodness,  Justice, 
Mercy,  Truth,  are  the  gradual  developments  of  an  eternal  and 
internal  Principle,  constituting  the  Divine,  original  Essence !  " 

Disease,  in  the  Davis  philosophy,  is  not  a  part  of  the  "  Great 
Harmonia."     His   conclusions   as   to  disease   are: 

"  That  disease  is  discord;  and  that  this  disease  originates 
in  a  want  of  equilibrium  in  the  circulation  of  the  spiritual 
Principle  throughout  the  organism. 

"  That  the  spiritual  Principle  is  an  organisation  of  refined 
and  sublimated  materials ;  consequently,  being  material,  it  is 
susceptible  to  material  influences. 

"  That  those  physical  developments  which  are  called  diseases, 
are  simply  evidences  of  constitutional  or  spiritual  disturbances ; 
and  consequently,  that  there  is  but  one  '  disease,'  having  in- 
numerable symptoms." 

The  mission  of  the  physician,  Davis  says,  is  not  to  the  body, 
"  for  the  body  is  but  a  subordinate  portion  of  the  individual." 
"  Disease  is  an  effect,  not  a  cause."  "  Disease  is  an  evil  to 
be  prevented;  it  is  an  effect  to  be  overcome.  Physicians  are 
designed  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  principle."  "  Man  is  a 
Unit,"  he  says  again.  "  It  is  not  true  that  he  has  a  body 
to  be  cured  of  disease  separate  from  his  mind." 


492  APPENDIX  B 

To  dispel  disease  and  to  promote  individual  health  and  happi- 
ness, Davis  says,  the  Divine  Principle  working  through  Nature 
has  provided  certain  remedial  agents.  These  agents  are 
"  Dress,  Food,  Water,  Air,  Light,  Electricity,  and  Magnetism." 
"  Vital  magnetism  and  electricity,"  he  writes,  "  are  the  divine 
elements  of  spiritual  nourishment,  and  are  the  mediums  through 
which  the  spirit  acts  upon  the  body ;  and  to  restore  harmony 
or  health,  the  prime-moving  principle  in  the  body  must  be 
addressed  by  and  through  identical  mediums  or  elements." 

He  also  says :  "  By  self-magnetisation,  or  by  the  magnetic 
or  spiritual  action  of  the  influence  of  one  individual  upon 
another  .  .  .  the  human  soul  can  rise  superior  to  every  species 
of  discord,  and  thus  subdue  and  expel  disease." 

Davis  believed  that  Christ  employed  animal  magnetism  in 
making  cures.  "  It  is  clear,  at  least  to  the  interiorly-en- 
lightened mind,  that  Christ  cast  out  diseases,  Satans,  or  devils, 
by  the  exercise  of  that  spiritual  power,  which,  in  our  century, 
has  unfortunately  been  termed  '  Animal  Magnetism.'  " 

In  applying  his  principle  practically  to  the  care  of  the  sick, 
he  recommends  a  cheerful,  hopeful  spirit  on  the  part  of  the 
patient,  strict  attention  to  diet  and  temperature,  and  regular, 
simple  habits.  Occasionally,  as  for  rheumatism,  he  prescribes 
a  kind  of  beverage  and  gives  instructions  how  to  prepare  it. 
"  The  patient  is  requested  to  remember,"  he  writes,  "  that  I 
recommend  a  reconciliation  with  Nature,  and  not  medicines,  to 
accomplish  his  cure." 

Like  Mrs.  Eddy,  Davis  had  not  much  respect  for  learning. 
"  Book-learning,"  he  writes,  "  is  mainly  ephemeral  and  useless ; 
but  Wisdom  which  unfolds  from  out  the  depths  of  intuition,  is 


APPENDIX  B  493 

everlasting  and  more  valuable  than  seas  of  diamonds."  He 
taught  that  true  wisdom  comes  only  through  spiritual  or  in- 
terior vision,  and  that  the  evidence  of  the  senses  is  not  always 
trustworthy. 

Some  time  after  the  publication  of  his  first  books,  Davis 
joined  the  Spiritualistic  movement  and  became  well  known  as 
a  leader  in  that  sect,  travelling  and  lecturing  extensively. 


APPENDIX  C 

There  is  no  fundamental  similarity  between  Christian  Science 
and  Shakerism,  but  there  are  significant  resemblances.  Ann 
Lee's  main  contribution  to  religious  theories  or  pretensions 
was  the  idea  that  God  is  both  masculine  and  feminine.  She, 
herself,  claimed  to  be  the  "  female  principle  of  God,"  and  the 
Shakers  believed  and  taught  that  she  was  the  "  female  Christ." 
Mrs.  Eddy  also  teaches  the  femininity  of  God,  and  Christian 
Scientists  have  claimed  that  she  is  the  "  feminine  principle 
of  Deity."  The  Shakers  asserted  for  Ann  Lee  that  she  was 
greater  than  Christ.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  said  that  her  revelation 
of  Christian  Science  was  "  higher,  clearer,  and  more  perma- 
nent," ^  than  that  given  eighteen  centuries  ago.  The  Shakers 
prayed  always  to  "  Our  Father  and  Mother  which  are  in 
Heaven,"  while  Mrs.  Eddy  has  "  spiritually  interpreted  "  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  making  it  read :  "  Our  Father-Mother  God." 
The  Shakers  proclaimed  Ann  Lee  to  be  the  woman  of  the 
Apocalypse,  calling  her  the  "  God-anointed  Woman,"  and  the 
"  Holy  Comforter."  In  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
called  the  attention  of  her  followers  to  the  significance  of  the 
chapter  in  Revelation  on  the  woman  of  the  Apocalypse  and 
its  "  relation  to  the  present  age,"  suggesting  that  the  woman 
represents  the  founder  of  Christian  Science.  Christian  Science, 
Mrs.  Eddy  teaches,  is  the  "  Holy  Comforter."     In  the  original 

»A  statement  in   a   personal   letter. 

494 


APPENDIX  C  495 

Mother  Church  in  Boston  is  a  stained-glass  window,  showing 
the  woman  of  the  Apocalypse  clothed  in  the  sun  and  crowned 
with  twelve  stars.  It  is  titled  "  The  Woman  God  Crowned," 
and  above  it  is  a  representation  of  the  book  Science  and  Health. 
Shakers  always  called  Ann  Lee  "  Mother  " ;  Christian  Scientists 
formerly  thus  addressed  Mrs.  Eddy.  Mother  Ann,  like  Mother 
Eddy,  declared  that  she  had  the  gift  of  healing.  She  also 
believed  that  she  took  upon  herself  the  sins  and  sufferings  of 
others ;  in  the  early  days,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the  same  idea.  The 
Shakers  believed  that  Mother  Ann  had  spiritual  illumination — 
the  mind  that  saw  things  as  they  were;  that  the  rest  of  the 
world  was  deceived ;  that  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  used  against 
her,  might  mislead ;  this  is  a  prevailing  idea  in  regard  to 
Mrs.  Eddy  among  Christian  Scientists.  Ann  Lee  governed 
largely  through  fear ;  her  followers  believed  that,  with  her 
mental  powers,  she  could  inflict  torment  upon  them  in  this 
world.  In  the  early  Christian  Science  days,  if  not  now,  "  mali- 
cious animal  magnetism  " — as  Mrs.  Eddy  named  this  power 
of  mentally  working  evil  on  others — was  an  orthodox  doctrine. 
The  Shakers  called  their  establishment  "  The  Church  of 
Christ  " ;  Mrs.  Eddy  used  the  same  name,  adding  the  word 
"  Scientist."  They  called  the  original  foundation  the  "  Mother 
Church  " ;  Mrs.  Eddy  so  designated  her  first  Boston  building. 
Ann  Lee  forbade  audible  prayer,  teaching  that  it  "  exposed 
the  desires  " ;  Mrs.  Eddy  opposes  audible  prayer,  which  may 
"  utter  desires  which  are  not  real."  Finally,  Ann  Lee  en- 
joined celibacy.  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  that  celibacy  is  a  more 
spiritual  state  than  marriage ;  she  permits  the  marriage  relation 
merely  as  "  expedient," — "  suffer  it  to  be  so  now." 


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